I was going to start by saying that I thought HARDCORE SUPERSTAR couldn’t impress me anymore, but then I realized that I wrote precisely that about last time I’ve seen them (Stockholm, April 2011). So I guess what I’ll do from now on is believing that they can still impress me, no matter how excellent the previous show had been. 

I could say that, despite loving “Split Your Lip”, I like this “C’mon Take On Me” better, but it was all about their attitude on stage, not the set-list, that made the awesomeness of this show. And they played four songs of “Split Your Lip” against only three of their latest, so…

I was surprised to see they would play two ballads – “Long Time No See” and “Run To Your Mama”. Especially the latter, as it’s probably the quietest song they have. But both have such an emotional baggage that of course they were enthralling and rocked the crowd in a different but complete way.

A personal high moment for me was when “Someone Special” was played. This was the one “must-hear” song from their first years that I hadn’t had the chance to see live yet. On the video for this song, Jocke is seen playing guitar. That night he just fingered a bit on Martin‘s bass.  It was dedicated to everyone in that sold out venue and we made sure to deserve it.

“Above The Law”, probably my favorite from “C’mon Take On Me”, finished the first part of the set and pretty much the whole crowd proved feeling the same as I did. But then again, our attitude towards every song was just as ecstatic.

The encore started up with the aforementioned “Run To Your Mama” and then for “Last Call For Alcohol” Jocke invited half a dozen girls and one guy to get on stage, have a drink and scream their lungs out during the chorus. The last one, as no one expected otherwise, was “We Don’t Celebrate Sundays”, from their self-titled masterpiece – to use Jocke‘s own words. 

This was a co-headlining tour with BUCKCHERRY, band that I’m not very fond of. But since I was there, the original idea was to go along and give the guys a chance. Who knows, maybe I would have a change of heart regarding them. But after such a mind-blowing gig by the Swedes, anything else would pale. So I just left, with a really big smile on my face. 

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