What were we thinking? Were we just a little bit crazy? Or were we total idiots? I'm talking about "Unfold the future", the tour (TFK, 2002). We played for 2 hours and 40 minutes + a 10 minute intermission and encores. The cornerstones of the concert was "The truth will set you free" - 30 mins. "Stardust we are" - 30 mins. "Garden of dreams" - 1 HOUR! That means approximately 3 songs in 2 hours and 10 minutes. The rest of the songs changed from gig to gig, even if we concentrated on songs from the latest release. Just as I said, what were we thinking? I know it must have been overkill for some of the guys in the audience, but as I remember it, the vast majority of the crowd seemed to love every minute of it. I still get chills down my spine, as I recall the feeling when you got to the end section of "Garden of dreams". After playing parts with lot's of chords (some of them disharmonic), tempo and rythm changes, all in all a whole lotta information going on, you all of a sudden hit an E sharp, the tempo slows down and the music just gets more powerful and beautiful for every bar we play. On top of that, when it comes to my singing, I really have to give 100%. Live, I sang the lead part which Roine did on the record, one octave higher than him because he played lead guitar at the same time. Anyway, if you just did a killer or even just a decent version of that little tune and the crowd started to roar, I promise you, you felt like you just won Super Bowl or Champions League!
Back in those days we had Zoltan on drums, which by far is the most technically skilled drummer I've ever played with. He was funny though, during soundchecks when he improvised and just played for fun. He was the absolute best drummer I've heard. A couple of hours later at showtime, beeing a "jazz cat" who likes to play in the moment, maybe the long and heavily arranged and structured songs we did that tour, was'nt the ideal situation for him. Don't get me wrong here, he did an excellent job. I just wished you heard the soundchecks.
In December 2006, we did a short tour (Norway, Sweden, England, Germany) after the European and American tour of "Paradox Hotel. One of the stops was Nyköping, a pretty little city 100 km:s south of Stockholm. After a great gig at the town theatre, me, Marcus (the drummer at that time), Jonas and Tomas went out to a night club (me and Thomsson actually played there before), for some beers (soda's in Jonas and Tomas case). The place was packed with "Friday happy" Swedes. All of a sudden a very glad and very loaded lad showed up right in front of my nose and pointed his finger at me and said with a loud and distinctive voice: "DET ÄR JU DU SOM E' HAN!! "BUT IT'S YOU THAT'S HIM! For him it was impossible to put the guys in his favourite band in his local night club.
Back in those days we had Zoltan on drums, which by far is the most technically skilled drummer I've ever played with. He was funny though, during soundchecks when he improvised and just played for fun. He was the absolute best drummer I've heard. A couple of hours later at showtime, beeing a "jazz cat" who likes to play in the moment, maybe the long and heavily arranged and structured songs we did that tour, was'nt the ideal situation for him. Don't get me wrong here, he did an excellent job. I just wished you heard the soundchecks.
In December 2006, we did a short tour (Norway, Sweden, England, Germany) after the European and American tour of "Paradox Hotel. One of the stops was Nyköping, a pretty little city 100 km:s south of Stockholm. After a great gig at the town theatre, me, Marcus (the drummer at that time), Jonas and Tomas went out to a night club (me and Thomsson actually played there before), for some beers (soda's in Jonas and Tomas case). The place was packed with "Friday happy" Swedes. All of a sudden a very glad and very loaded lad showed up right in front of my nose and pointed his finger at me and said with a loud and distinctive voice: "DET ÄR JU DU SOM E' HAN!! "BUT IT'S YOU THAT'S HIM! For him it was impossible to put the guys in his favourite band in his local night club.