Steve Rothery @ Fryshuset Klubben

Posted on October 10, 2023 by Diana

Last weekend it was time to immerse myself again into the beautiful music of Marillion. This time it was to listen to their older works, performed flawlessly, as I was about to find out, by The Steve Rothery Band. Steve R. is Marillion’s guitarist, and he takes the opportunity to celebrate Marillion’s early releases by performing them together with an amazing bunch of talented musicians, which are, obviously, not his regular band mates. We had the privilege to attend two consecutive concerts and listen to songs from The Ghosts of Pripyat, his 2014 solo album, the full Misplaced Childhood on the first evening, the full Clutching at Straws on the second evening, as well as songs from Fugazi and Script for a Jester’s Tear.

Fryshuset Klubben has a capacity of maximum 800 people. The first evening the venue was packed. I am certain that everybody came particularly to listen to Misplaced Childhood, which is the band’s most successful and well known album. From the first notes of The Ghosts of Pripyat I knew I was in the right place. A fully instrumental 3 opening tracks got us into the mood and pumped us up for what was about to be a trip down musical-memory lane to 1985. The whole set of Misplaced Childhood was more of a sing-along and the artists delivered a perfect performance. A lot of laughter, interaction with the crowd and passion on both sides. The songs were flowing one after the other and it was quickly time to say goodbye to Misplaced Childhood and get ready for the final tracks before the encore. The first song to make us snap out of it was Assassing which sounded amazing and made all of us dance. It was followed by Jigsaw, Freaks, Incubus, Garden Party (I must say I enjoy the video more than the song itself) and Market Square Heroes. And just like that the evening was over.

The second evening had a slightly smaller audience, which I honestly didn’t quite understand, as Clutching at Straws is a great album. While Misplaced Childhood is a bit more catchy, this album is a bit darker, with maybe a bit of a more complex composition, more intertwined sounds and a deeper grip on the listener. Or at least this is how I hear it. While the evening started with a few more songs from The Ghosts of Pripyat, with Morpheus opening the night again, the continuation into the full-album moment of the evening caught me completely, and it was easy to disconnect from everything and just breathe in the music. I figured out quite early in the setlist that I was enjoying this second evening better, and I was breathlessly waiting to hear live all the familiar songs on the album. And somehow I enjoyed the closing tracks of the second show better than the ones they played the previous evening (Cinderella Search, Script for a Jester’s Tear, Grendel and Fugazi). Were my expectations for the first evening too high? Did it take everybody a whole day to warm up? Or is simply Clutching at Straws‘ grip on me? People around me seemed to have enjoyed the first evening more. Maybe live Misplaced has more guitar solos that Steve R. hypnotises us with, while Clutching is more homogenous as a musical piece? Or maybe I just like it more, hence the stronger impression the second night made on me. Lots of brilliant keyboard parts in this one though and an impeccable performance on that from Riccardo Romano. And so many good vibes from David Foster whose smile and good mood was contagious. And they are the two new artists added to my playlists after this weekend. Great vocals and a total privilege to see Steve R. at the centre of the stage and hear him joke and interact with us.

To me Marillion has the voice of Mr. h, their live performances is what got me so caught up in this. But this was not about that Marillion. This was about a small stage holding in its middle a titan of a guitar player whose talent is surpassed only by the incredible sounds that he creates with his guitar, a singer who is a walking miracle (Martin Jakubski), a focused bass player who exchanges messages in gazes and rhythm (Yatim Halim), an invisible drummer whose only presence on stage is given away by the drum set and regular beats (Leon Parr), a guitarist having the best time of his life on stage while making sure the circle of sound is fully closed (David Foster), and a keyboard player spellbound by the music (Riccardo Romano)… and me by him and everything else.

Posted in English, Music Stuff | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Steve Hogarth @ Biblioteket Live, Stockholm

Posted on August 6, 2023 by Diana

Two days after the amazing event in Linköping, it was time to go see Steve “h” Hogarth in Stockholm. I was still riding the wave of energy from the previous gig and I was ready for another evening of stories, laughter and good music. I also wanted to get a seat as close to the stage as possible, so again, I got to the venue before the doors opened and took my seat in the queue, and yes, there were a lot of people in front of me already, but I still managed to find a seat in the second row, behind fans who had been sitting in front of me in Linköping as well. The venue in Stockholm was more lively, colourful and very cozy, with rows of chairs but also sofas and armchairs in the back, as well as a bar in the same room. I knew from before the event that I want to buy some merchandise and go to the autograph/meet & greet session after the concert.

Steve showed up on stage a bit after 7 pm, with the laptop under his arm and a wide smile on his face, scanning the whole audience in a glimpse, and he was greeted by a full house of around 100 people who were cheering and smiling back excitedly. And the show started. Not that much chit-chat in this one, and not as much laughter, just some giggles every now and then. The first song was The Evening Shadows, and right after we got Fantastic Place, which I got stuck with on repeat quite a lot after the Berlin weekend in June, so of course I was thrilled to hear the raw version of the song. And after two more tunes we got to the questions part of the evening. I already mentioned in my post about the Linköping gig that, when purchasing a ticket, you could request 10 songs and ask a question. With a bit of luck, you’d get some of the requested melodies played live (according to Mr h, he didn’t take the time to read through the spreadsheet that collected all the requests), and get an answer to your question (which were in the spreadsheet that he took the time to read through). And though I was out of ideas for questions for the first evening, I snuck one in the purchase form, together with my 10 requests for the Stockholm concert. So after discussing owning a pet skunk, but ending up getting a skunk fur coat, or talking about questions he wouldn’t like to be asked, came an answer to the following question: What is your dearest Marillion/music memory? My question. I froze and melted in the same time! So this is how we got into memories of playing Estonia at the Royal Albert Hall (2019, With Friends From the Orchestra), and how amazing that moment was for him, as well as the story on how Neverland was written (it might have involved some creativity incentives at the pub). And we got this with a live demonstration on how the process went like, from Mark Kelly’s creation of the chords around which the song was built, to how Steve Rothery ends up writing amazing guitar riffs accidentally, to coming up with other melody bits and pieces that turned into the beautiful Neverland, which he played and teased us with throughout the whole story.

The gig continued with covers from Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Pink Floyd and many Marillion songs, as well as with a short moment of taking requests directly from the audience. I got to listen to another song from my list of requests (made the same list for both gigs), and that was White Paper, from the 2016 album FEAR. Of course we all sang to the chorus of Easter and the crowd was delighted to listen to a medley of Ocean Cloud and Estonia. People asked me why I wanted to see the same artist twice in a row, and I had to explain every time that the setlists are different from one evening to another. Yes, some songs were played in both places, but who wouldn’t want to hear Seasons End twice? I could never get enough of this! I just sat there for two and a half hours listening… and writing down the name of each song, only to be able to put this post together as setlist.fm doesn’t always get updated, for example, I have no idea what was played in Gävle, where I really wish I went as well.

It was a very nice feeling to attend this event and the previous one. It is such a different take on the music and it is quite hard to put in words what you experience. You get very emotional and happy. It is also nice to exchange glances with other members of the audience, to see that people travel from other countries for this, to hear them comment that you are surprisingly young to be at such a gig. And the awesome part was waiting in the queue to get an autograph, a photo and to say thank you in person. And just smiling and keeping that smile on your face and the feeling with you for as long as possible, even if a few minutes later you just run for the bus in the pouring rain and step in all puddles on the way.

Posted in Day to Day, English, Music Stuff | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Steve Hogarth @ Wallenbergsalen, Linköping

Posted on July 31, 2023 by Diana

After June’s Marillion Weekend in Berlin, which I wrote about here, it was now time to see Steve Hogarth. Though his Holidays in Sweden tour had a date scheduled for Stockholm too, I couldn’t resist the temptation to travel to another location and catch an extra show. I had to choose between Linköping and Gävle and I made my choice by thinking: do I want to see The Swedish Air Force Museum or The Swedish Train Museum? Airplanes won and so did Linköping.

After getting off the train from Stockholm, I got straight on the bus and went to see the planes. I scheduled my train ride in such a way that I’d have enough time to visit the place just before it was time to check-in at the hotel. The museum is a piece of Sweden’s history, and besides all the cool aircrafts and their stories, it also paints a very interesting picture of Sweden’s relationship with war, peace and offers some depictions of what life was like in Sweden during and after the Cold War. So after learning some new things and standing a few meters under a real SAAB A-32 Lansen jet fighter aircraft, it was time to head back to the city centre and get ready for the concert (Side note: war sucks and I wish there was never a need for army planes).

I arrived in front of the venue at 18:02. There was already a queue… but not a very long one. I went in soon after and found a seat in the second row in front of the stage. There were very few people in the crowd, but slowly the seats started to get occupied. At a certain point, quietly and without a big fuss, Steve passed us all and went up to the backstage area. It was almost time for the concert to start, and right after 7 pm, with a laptop under his arm and a big smile, cheered by the audience, Steve Hogarth took his seat behind the piano. And the show began, though the first 10-15 minutes or so felt more like a stand-up comedy rather than a music show. To explain: besides the concerts with Marillion, their lead singer organises some events in which he spends time chatting with the audience and playing his songs, Marillion songs, other artists’ songs accompanied by a piano. My third such event, so I know the background story. The fun part about these events is that they’re unscripted and things can go either way. The main idea about last evening is that after the first 15 minutes my cheeks were hurting from all the laughing. Between chats with the crowd and stories about Happiness Is the Road the music started: Seasons End. In the blink of an eye we were all caught up in the song. Sympathy next, then Sounds that Can’t Be Made. A story about a song, a totally unrelated pun, a Marillion song, some tracks from his solo work (yay for Nothing to Declare), some Bob Dylan, some Kate Bush, some more laughs and a very, very happy crowd of people, both off and on the stage.

At a certain time during the show, Steve told us that the crown on the previous evening was rather quiet, partly because of him and his quarrel with two chatty persons from the audience, and that he was impressed by the fact that we were quite loud. We might have been asked to be a bit more involved but I don’t think we needed much extra motivation to cheer as loud as we did than the great music, the conversations, the intimate vibe of the event. It was a fantastic place to be! It is incredible how different the perception on the artist is in such events. From leading a rock band in front of thousands of people with Marillion, where the music is blending with the lights, the atmosphere, turning the concert into an epic gig, these events shift the focus. You hear the music differently, the lyrics are clear, you hear every word, there is no guitar riff to cover the verses, no melodic piano to carry you through the rhythm of a song. The sounds are raw, the voice is strong (and what a voice). I said it before in different contexts: it’s a distinct way of living the music. It is hypnotising.

I wrote down on my phone the setlist. I managed to count 18 songs, but I am sure there were bits and pieces of more tracks here and there, in-between chats and giggles. But to make it a memorable night, the ending of the event brought us Afraid of Sunlight, Easter, Care (Angels on Earth), and Life on Mars. So much emotion in one evening!

When buying the ticket, one had the option to suggest 10 songs for the evening of the concert, and to ask a question. I am the worst at asking artists questions as most of the times all I want is to hear them play. But I did list 10 songs, and I got to listen to 3 of them: Nothing to Declare, You’re Gone and Afraid of Sunlight. I still have a chance to hear some of the other 7 and I really hope that some of them make it on the setlist at the next gig.

I went to the hotel after the concert but not before taking a short detour to see how Linköping looks like in the evening, and I spent the next morning enjoying some good brunch at Wayne’s Coffee, walking around the streets and visiting Linköping Trädgårdsförening, a lovely park full of pretty flowers and lovely fika places. But early afternoon it was time to return to a cold and rainy Stockholm and leave behind the sunny and cozy Linköping city centre, and the concert at Wallenbergsalen.

Posted in Day to Day, English, Music Stuff | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Marillion Weekend @ Tempodrom, Berlin

Posted on July 10, 2023 by Diana

After last year’s experience in Stockholm, I really wanted to attend a Marillion weekend again. And since beautiful music is hard to say no to, here I was starting my Summer holiday with a trip to Berlin. First time visiting the city but all I could think about were the two live gigs that the weekend would bring. I got in the mood of it all quite fast, even before taking off from Stockholm, because on the flight I ran into other people going to the event – easily recognisable by the Marillion t-shirts. And then I giggled every time I saw a Marillion t-shirt on the streets of Berlin, thinking to myself “I know what you are doing here”.

So after a day of taking in as much as the city has to offer (lots of history, culture, good food and angry museum guards), it was time to attend the first evening. With a vague idea of what they were playing during these weekends, there I was ready to take in the music. And I had a lot to take in.

On the first evening they started with songs from An Hour Before It’s Dark, and for the third time I saw them start a gig with Be Hard on Yourself. Since they didn’t dedicate a whole evening to this album, as they did at the gigs I attended last year, they scrambled the order of the songs and jumped to Only a Kiss and Murder Machines straight after, to continue with Reprogram the Gene. So far so good, I was very well acquainted to all of the songs. Afterwards they played Fantastic Place, and ever since then this song is on repeat on my Spotify. Then they played Map of the World, which happens to be one of their songs that my brother introduced me to, and one of my favourites from them, so you can imagine that seeing them play it live was an absolute joy. No One Can followed, and it was dedicated to a couple that were in the audience. I think this song is what started the whole Marillion interest in our household, through my sister. They took us on a journey through all of their discography, which I promised myself to go in depth with in full sometimes at the beginning of the year, and I am still working on it. If you wonder why, it is mostly because I listen to an album and I get stuck on it for a few weeks in a row. Shuffeling through their catalogue is no longer an option. Afraid of Sunlight was lovely, and so was White Paper. They spoiled the veteran troops of fans with Warm Wet Circles and That Time of The Night. Even though I was fairly young when this album came out, I was more than happy that they included these songs in their setlist (yes, they are from an album that I already got stuck on) and I was impressed how good they sound with Steve “h” Hogarth taking care of vocals, and how thrilled the fans get, even from the first chord. They ended the first evening with two encores: during the first one they played Care, and for the second one they played Berlin, which was a bit… self-explanatory. First night in a wrap: I didn’t know one song.

The second evening came after a day of walking around in a warm Berlin and climbing all the way to the top of the Victory Column. I had my encounter with German security again, this time because my backpack was too big to be taken into the concert venue. As a note: it’s the type of small backpacks that fit a bottle of water and a sweater. Before I got more annoyed with the security guard, I went to another door where both me and my backpack got the green light to attend the concert. The evening started with the traditional An Audience With, the part of the weekend when the band sit on stage, answer questions, play games, when the audience get to cheer when hearing the name of the country they come from, and when special fans get to be rewarded for their loyalty, usually with a photo with the band, which is like a cherry on the top of it all. The setlist debuted with a trip down memory lane all the way to Brave, which is the album that started it all for me. I must admit that this evening brought more songs from albums that I didn’t have the chance to listen carefully to yet, however, I knew that I need to have patience because Sierra Leone was going to pop in the setlist at a certain moment, which it did. I still believe this is one of their best live pieces. One of the cool things about Marillion gigs is that you get a lot of good music, and bits and pieces of the stories that stand behind them. The story about the train ride that inspired This Train Is My Life reminded me of all the train rides that I took late at night, watching cities pass one after the other, most of the times on my way home. But it also reminded me of watching trains pass in the night, seeing them somewhere far away and hearing the rumbling of their wheels on the tracks. The evening ended with The Leavers, a five-part song from their 2016 F.E.A.R. album, almost 20 minutes of extraordinary work, and one of those songs in which the parts don’t make sense on their own, you’d have to listen to it all to truly listen to it.

What is Marillion like? That is hard to put in words, because you cannot fully describe music. It’s emotional, political, sometimes even brutal, relatable and captivating. What it is like seeing them live: it is probably one of the best live bands I have ever seen. I am still convinced that their gig in Stuttgart last Autumn was the best live gig I’ve ever attended, but these two evenings are strong competition. The band is amazing, from h who is the main link with the audience, which he interacts and jokes with, to the hypnotising guitar parts of Steve Rothery, the fabulous keyboard and piano pieces of Mark Kelly, the deep bass of Pete Trewavas, whom h is chatting with the most during the shows, under the steady rhythm of Ian Mosley’s drums, from behind which he keeps an eye on the stage & audience. Or just does the band’s finances in his head, as they shared with us during the weekend’s An Audience With that finances are his responsibility. Their concerts are a treat, a wonderful display of good music which I enjoy listening to, a fact that runs in the family.

Posted in English, Music Stuff | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

James Bay @ Berns, Stockholm

Posted on June 12, 2023 by Diana

I don’t even know where to start when I talk about this, but James Bay is one of my favourite artists. I can’t believe this was just my third time seeing him live, but I already lost track of how many times he was my top artist on Spotify Wrapped. Obviously, I was super excited to see this show, so excited that I even made sure I arrive there early to be certain I get a good spot, not too close to the stage, where everybody gets elbowed, but not at the back of the crowd, behind the sound engineer either. As the time to go on stage came closer and closer for James and his band, my excitement, and everybody else’s around me, grew and grew. The last time I saw him, his previous album, Electric Light, had just been released. Now I was eager to hear some of his new tracks, from his latest release, Leap.

The concert started with a set of classics from the older albums, just to continue with some unreleased songs: Goodbye Never Felt so Bad and All My Broken Pieces. It is useless to say that we were mind-blown. The first song is a bit more up-tempo and very catchy, with James’ voice carrying us across the chorus, while the second one is a ballad written and performed in his specific style. And then we went back to older songs again, but not before the audience asked for The Best, by Tina Turner, and James humoured us by playing its chorus and rattled on his guitar a bit, in honour of the recently passed away music legend.

There is really a lot of emotion and professionalism in his performance. And he surrounded himself by a bunch of talented musicians that make the gigs complete. It is a pleasure to hear him live, his music is slightly less popish as on the recordings, and a bit more rock’n’roll, with a lot of improvisations and guitar solos that shows us that James is more than a good singer, but a talented guitar player and a showman, making him a complete artist.

More than halfway into the gig, I finally got to hear a new song, from his latest released album: One Life. And that was the only track he played from it. And this is the only downside of the concert. I would have really liked to hear more songs from Leap. Fade Out came right after and I liked it so much: a toned down, soul-style pop track, smooth voice, funky rhythm, good for dancing to, just enough to calm us down before the main part of the show ended with more up-tempo tracks.

The encore was made up of two songs: Scars, and the unmistakeable Hold Back The River. Though the best received song was, as always, Let It Go, this last song triggered a fervent reaction in all of us. Was it because of the song or was it because we knew it was the last one? No idea! The most important thing is that it struck a chord and it made for a fitting closure of an amazing live gig. 17 songs went by so fast!

It was incredible to see James Bay in Berns. The location itself is beautiful, in the heart of Stockholm. It was nice to be surrounded by people who showed the same passion for the music that was played, seeing how we all sing along. I somehow felt that, compared to other shows where people may attend out of curiosity, we were all fans there. The type of feeling that I previously saw in Marillion gigs. I left the location of the concert with a smile on my face and a deep feeling of contentment that I got to see one of my favourite musicians again.

Posted in English, Music Stuff | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment