On Saturday, January 26, I watched the Europe Almost Unplugged Live Webcast that was broadcast live on their website www.europetheband.com at 9 pm Central Europe Time (CET) or 12 noon Pacific Time.  They played at a small venue called Nalen in Stockholm, Sweden.

I attempted to launch the webcast at 11:45 am and it said I had to install a plug-in.  I tried the plug-ins they featured and neither of them worked so I clicked on manual install that proceeded to install the Windows Media Player Firefox plug-in.  The webcast launched and showed a 6-inch square screen of the stage and the backs of some male concertgoers' heads.  I tried to expand it to full screen but I kept getting the message, "Video has to be playing to enter full screen mode."  I tried at other times during the webcast and kept getting the same message.

The venue had a pit area in front of the stage where people stood and there were these Doric-looking columns along the walls and the stage.  The stage was dark but I could see the outline of at least four chairs and a drum kit.  During the concert the lights shined different in the background behind the stage.  They ranged from dark blue turquoise to purple to red to orange to dark green to light green.  They changed the color after every song though some songs had the same color. 

The crowd looked like Europeans (no surprise) mostly in their 20’s and 30’s.  Some held up signs and flags

When the time was close to noon (i.e. 9 pm CET), the crowd started making noise such as singing "Whoa Whoa" and then the band came out to applause and sat down on the chairs.  The string quartet followed and sat on four more chairs behind the drum kit.  The lead singer, Joey Tempest, said, "Let's have some fun" and they went straight into a nearly acoustic version of "Got to Have Faith" (nearly acoustic since the keyboard player, Mic Micheali, played electronic keyboards throughout.)  The string quartet played some harmony and the guitarist, John Norum, sounded like he was playing blues from the 70's.  Even when almost unplugged, the song still rocked.

When they finished the first song Joey said, "It's a very special night, for us at least, because we have these nice ladies playing strings for us."  He described how they planned to play some weird and wonderful versions of Europe songs and some covers of songs and artists that influenced them most.  They then played an almost acoustic version of "Forever Travelling" a cut of their latest CD that is a tribute to Steve Perry formerly of Journey.

Before the next song, the bassist, John Leven and John N. switched to electric instruments.  John N. got a black and white y-shaped guitar.  Joey described how John N. came up with the guitar solo for next song while casually jamming in the recording studio.  He said, "Miracles do happen.  This one's for you, Jamie" (I have no idea who he was talking about) and they launched into "Devil Sings the Blues", also from their latest CD.  That song has grown on me since I saw this webcast of it.

John N. and John L. switched back to acoustic guitars for the next song and Joey said it was for "the people in front of the computers, wish you were here." and they covered Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here".  When he sang, "We're just two lost souls living in a fish bowl year after year" it really seemed like that to me watching them on a 6-inch screen.  The stage lights shined a light green background.

The staged lights changed to purple for the next song "Dreamer" from their 1984 record "Wings of Tomorrow".  They didn't sing any verse acappella as they have been known to do but it was still soulful.

The next song was their second cover that Joey prefaced by saying how when the band Force (original named of Europe) started many years ago or "no, it wasn't really that long ago", John's mother's partner had a very large record collection and this was one they listened to many times.  The background changed the deep orange and they sang "Love to Love" by UFO, a song I had never heard before.  It didn't measure up to Europe's songs in my opinion but it had interesting switches between soulful singing and hard guitar riffs.

The guitarists switched back to electric instruments, the lights changed the dark blue, and Joey introduced the next song with a story: 

Once upon a time
in basement
on the edge of Stockholm
There was a little punk
who borrowed a keyboard from another punk
and came up with a riff
that changed everything.
And the rest, as they say
is a mystery. . .

They then went straight into the first verse of "The Final Countdown" without doing the signature keyboard riff.  The version sounded very different from the regular with the strings providing a multilayered harmony.  They made it through the first verse and then the screen froze, at the worst possible it could time during the concert.  But the time I got things back up and running they were finishing the last verse and the strings were playing the notes of the signature riff.  I wish I could have heard the whole song.  This occurrence prevents me from giving the concert five stars.

After singing what he has described as their "biggest hit so far."  Joey put down the acoustic rhythm guitar he had played during the first six songs and picked up some shakers.  He stood up and the lights changed to blue turquoise.  "We need your helping hands with this one," he said.  As the loud intro to the song began Joey quietly joked, "I liked to move-it move-it" and they played the rockin' cult favorite outtake "Yesterday's News".  Towards the end they stopped playing and let the crowd clap out the rhythm before providing an extended ending.

The lights changed back to dark purple and Joey got his guitar back and said, "The next song is difficult to explain.  It's meant a lot to us. We're gonna try to do it justice."  John N. had switched to a different electric guitar with a more traditional shape and they played the bluesy "Since I've been Loving You" by Led Zepplin.

They went back to acoustic for the next song and Joey asked the crowd, "Where do you travel from?"  After listening he said, "I heard Spain, Germany, Italy.  I think there're also some from Sweden here" and resulting in loud cheering.  He introduced the next song as from their 2004 CD "Start From the Dark" and described how "This evening is about miracles and heroes."  The keyboard played, Mic Michaeli, played the chorus melody of their song "Hero" and Joey started singing the first verse on an acoustic version of the song.  The version was good but didn’t quite have the anthemic power of their regular version.  I tend to prefer Europe's regular versions to their acoustic ones.  Joey still got very passionate while singing it, raising his fist and looking like he was tearing up.

It was back to electric guitars for the guitarists and Joey said, "This goes out to a man who is sitting just east of Heaven and west of Hell.  This one goes out to Phil!"  I assume he meant the late Phil Lynott from the group Thin Lizzy who was a major influence and the inspiration for the prior song, "Hero".  Europe performed what I assume was a cover of a Thin Lizzy song, though I hadn't heard it before.  I think it was called "Suicide" given the prominence of that word in the chorus.  They used a blinking light effect during this song.

The crew took away Joey's guitar and he and John L. "clinked" their water bottoms before taking a sip.  Joey said, "It's been a long time since we played this next song.  It was requested by a lot of fans on our website europetheband.com".  The lights changed to green and red and they sang a song from their very first record that I hadn't heard before.  The song was "Memories" and it had interesting lyrics such as, "There is not time to pay my sin, everyday is a fire wind."

After they finished this twelth song of the evening they left the stage with the drummer, Ian Haugland, handing his sticks to the crowd.  For several minutes the crowded cheered, stomped, and clapped very loudly.  The stage lights came back on and the band and string quartet returned.  Joey said, "Thank you very very much!" He thanked the "string girls from Stockholm Strings" and introduced each of them by name.  Then he said, "We're gonna need your help on this one" and they played "Superstitious" with prominent harmonizing from the string quartet.  Since I didn't hear all of "The Final Countdown", I felt this song was their best performance of the concert.  It took me back to when I listen to this song in middle school so many years ago, or no, it wasn't really that long ago.  Joey did some back and forth with the crowd singing "Whoa Whoa"

They finished "Superstitous" and the string quartet left.  The band got up and talked amongst themselves for a few minutes and the crowd went crazy.  They went back to their places, though Joey jokelying went to the drum kit before being redirected by Ian.  Joey said, "We don't really plan anything else.  Any requests?"  After some unintelligible (to me) shouting from the audience Joey said, "This song was mentioned."  They played “Rock the Night” with Joey standing and playing shakers.  The crowd got really into it, raising their fists and they had an extended ending with Joey doing more back and forth with the crowd:

Joey: “Sing Rock now rock the night”

Crowd: “Rock now rock the night”

Joey: “Sing rock rock rock rock rock the night.”

Crowd: “Rock rock rock rock rock the night.”

The song ended to thunderous applause, screaming, and stomping.  The band got up for the final time. Joey said, “We’ll see you again soon” and they walked off the stage.  The screen faded to back.

Maybe next time I’ll actually get to see them live.




Leave a Reply.