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Showing posts with label Stockholm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stockholm. Show all posts

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Solna - Stockholm (Sweden) - Gimme Shelter

SOLNA – STOCKHOLM – SWEDEN
12 October – 13 October 2017

You simply can’t pass up the opportunity to see some living legends ply their trade when they’re going to be working in your neighbourhood. With the Rolling Stones scheduled to play at the Friends Arena in Solna (Stockholm), the 55 min flight from Riga to Stockholm was akin to me taking a train from Seven Hills station to Sydney, in terms of the time taken to get into the city. In that sense it  was a no-brainer, considering the proximity to us we were just going to have to see the Stones play live.

1962! Can you believe that's the year the first stable Stones line started hitting their straps!? That’s before the moon landing, prior to the Kennedy assassination,  and only 8 years after Elvis Presley started shaking his hips full-time. The Rolling Stones have been around are in the midst of their third generation of influence.  I remember as a 10 year old hearing about the Stones releasing another album, this was back in the mid-80’s, and even then there had been murmurs about when these 40 years olds would be retiring. My, weren’t those calls grossly premature.

Getting ourselves to Solna from Riga was a dream. A simple 10 min cab ride to Riga airport, a 55 min flight to Arlanda and then a short bus ride to Solna, on the outskirts of Stockholm, the bus stop of which was located directly opposite the The Winery Hotel where we had booked in for the night.

How could you go past staying at the The Winery Hotel, especially considering it was within easy walking distance of Friends Arena where the gig would be on! Another ‘no-brainer’. 


That dude has 'Moves like Jagger'
The Rolling Stones - Friends Arena - Solna - Sweden

The Rolling Stones - Friends Arena - Solna - Sweden


The hotel touts itself as being the world’s first combined urban winery and boutique hotel. Making use of their vineyards in Tuscany, their wines are made in Italy mostly, and I believe a few onsite also. The feel of the hotel is industrial, open and spacious, having a Brooklyn meets Tuscany feel, in the words of the hotel website. From our perspective, visually the hotel was pleasing and the concept itself was impressive enough. Where the hotel fell well short however was their failure to plan in accordance to known circumstances. Obviously a number of people had booked in to the hotel for the show but availability to food and alcohol between 1pm and 5pm, peak check-in time, was grossly under resourced. In fact it wasn’t resourced at all. The hotel restaurant was closed, so too was the bar. Access to wine was only via the self-serve machines, a novelty for sure but somewhat redundant when what we really wanted to do was find some food in an area that was devoid of it. In the end we were pointed the way to some nearby service stations. Well done Winery Hotel, you really recognised how to make your clients feel valued and how to add additional credence to your ‘five star’ mentality.


Meanwhile at Friends Arena the queues were insane, and for Sweden, unexpectedly disorganised. Crowds flooded under-staffed gates and advice as to the correct gates for entry were both cryptic and disjointed. Still, typically for a Swedish crowd, the masses were sedate and not too emotional with the snail like pace of entry. Certainly had the concert been further south there would have been far more emotional scenes that those we encountered here.


The Rolling Stones - Friends Arena - Solna - Sweden


Standing in the crowd you could easily see the inter-generational impact the band has had. There were audience members of the same age as the band, my own ages, twenty-something and teenagers. All of them either knew the songs, had grown up with them or had a grand-father that loved listening to them, and of course, these days seeing these guys is as much an event as listening to the music. Forever and the day they, as well as Inga & myself, will be able to say that we saw these guys play live.
The flattery as to their social impact and their music generally stops where their live show commenced. As 70+ year olds these pensioners are an inspiration for many reasons, and hence, it shouldn’t have been a surprise to allow the show to move at a pensioner pace, but as a fan that’s not what you want. You want the energy and frenetic pace of band that is recognised for its live performances. To me and to Inga it felt kind of tepid and meek. It was almost as if they were performing a parody of their younger selves, although this was serious. The music of course was great but the dynamic, the animation and vigour felt like it was missing.

Inga and I stayed around for about half the show. Enough to get an idea of what they’re about but not engaging enough to be taken on the journey.

Still, living legends exist for a reason. They are brilliant, that is for certain.

Here's the set-list from the night


Artist: The Rolling Stones

Location: Friends Arena - Solna - Sweden
Tour: No Filter


Setlist

 



Friday, September 18, 2015

Stockholm (SWEDEN) - Gotta Devil's haircut


Stockholm (Sweden)
18 SEPTEMBER - 22 SEPTEMBER 2015


This jaunt could have been floored even before it started by the errant stylings of a Serbian butcher. I say the word butcher but even that associates a degree or professionalism to an individual that decimated my follicles in such a manner that even my family was ashamed to look at me for a period of time.

I had been priming myself for a trip to Riga, Latvia. The time had now come to be introduced to Inga's family and I was getting my entire game together, which also involved resolving what to do with the mop on my head. Now, in hindsight, trusting the judgement of a man that has no hair, specifically regarding his opinion on 'where to get a stylish haircut in Belgrade', would probably be regarded as silly (at best), brutally stupid (at worst). And yet, in life, or perhaps should I say my life, you get brought up to trust that your older cousin has knowledge, that he has your best interests at heart, that he knows the city of his birth well enough to recommend a stylist for the needs of his younger cousin.

 BRUTALISED - HUMILIATED - ASHAMED

I walked out of that slaughterhouse with my dignity destroyed. I didn't just receive and pay for a bad haircut, nor was it simply a disgraceful haircut, this piece of dehumanisation was an atrocity, perpetrated by a lunatic and perpetuated by my cousin and his friend, both of whom are bald, and their attempts to pacify my emotional torment by telling me 'oh, it looks ok', 'it's fine'.

The reality check that needed came in the form my aunt. When I arrived home her simple assessment was this;

'You can't go to Riga like that!'

EXACTLY - I couldn't go anywhere looking like this except parking myself in a quiet corner of the nightmare that was playing out for all to see.


Air Serbia to Stockholm - Belgrade - Serbia

The next day we found a $5.00 barber that committed to fixing the public indecency that taking place on my scalp. His work was good - he saved what could have been the cancellation of my trip, the cancellation of meeting my future in-laws, the cancellation of a lot of things. This could have been THAT big of a game changer. The one you look back on and think, 'If only I didn't have that haircut, life could have been so different'.

The next day however I was at Nikola Tesla lining up for an Air Serbia flight to Stockholm.


Stockholm - Sweden

Stockholm - Sweden


Stockholm - Sweden


Stockholm - Sweden

It had been a few weeks since Inga had been in Belgrade, which was her first introduction to both my family and Belgrade, and now I was on my way to visit her family, via a small stop in Stockholm that was also going to include us seeing U2 perform at the Ericsson Globe as part of their I+E tour. There was also a small celebration to be had in that September 19th was the anniversary of our first date in Paris the year before. A great time to reflect on where we started, where we had been and where else we could potentially take this relationship.

Sant Eriksplan - Stockholm - Sweden


Stockholm - Sweden


Stockholm - Sweden



Stockholm is a cool place by the way. From my first visit in 2006 I always found it as particularly attractive, pedestrian friendly, warm and friendly. So when I ended up unlocking our AirBnB in Sankt Eriksplan the only thing I wanted to do is get out for a walk and do a bit of a walk, which of course I did. Through Kungsholmen, across to Gamla Stan and then Slussen, walking through the areas that were introduced to me by Jay nearly 10 years earlier. A nice piece of reminiscing in a great part of the world.

 Stockholm - Sweden

Stockholm - Sweden


Stockholm - Sweden


Stockholm - Sweden

Sankt Eriksplan - Stockholm - Sweden

Inga flew in from Riga the next day, the one year anniversary of our 1st date. Nice to celebrate and interesting to reflect on what had transpired in that time. In reality it had been a tumultuous year. My father had passed away in November and then in the weeks after my mother and I decided that we'd find living in Belgrade the superior option than to either staying in Seven Hills without him, or in fact moving to another location in Sydney. Then there was the 3 months that Inga & I spent travelling in South America together, the return to Sydney with the final pack up of all our things at #96. The move to Belgrade, the start of a new life, and of course there was 'us'. Things always become much clearer and their reasoning seems much more apparent when time lends you its 'focus goggles'. Looking back now and reflecting on how things with Inga transpired, the blocks were all falling into their required places in order for us to work. The things that needed to happen just did.

Stockholm was fun. We did the obligatory hop on - hop off experience, we walked the area around Katarina-Sofia, admiring the views across the harbour and into the city, we spent an afternoon and evening at the Grona Lund Amusement park and generally just enjoyed our time. It's not too hard to make future plans when everything just 'works' and travels so smoothly. That's the way our lives seemed to be going at that point. It's hard not to argue on the side of fate in situations like that.

 U2 - Ericcson Globe Arena - Stockholm - Sweden
  U2 - Ericcson Globe Arena - Stockholm - Sweden


                                            U2 - Ericcson Globe Arena - Stockholm - Sweden

The final night of our Stockholm stay was also meant to be the last of the Innocence + Experience tour stop in Stockholm for U2, well, that of course was until the previous evening where some random tried to bring a gun into the venue and became such an overwhelming security concern that the show was postponed to the night following our own. In terms of our own U2 stalking, Inga & I did actually join the crowd waiting for a glimpse of U2 outside if the Grand Hotel. We waited in some annoying drizzle for a lot longer than I anticipated until such time that I suggested that we just walk into the hotel and have a drink. Better to wait at the bar than on the street - ever way they never made an appearance.

                                          U2 - Ericcson Globe Arena - Stockholm - Sweden





 
U2 - Ericcson Globe Arena - Stockholm - Sweden

Their performance at the Globsen that evening was on point. After Inga managed to translate our seated tickets to floor tickets we pushed past many polite Swedes and made it directly onto the barricades, FRONT ROW BABY!!.....here's the set-list from that night.

INNOCENCE + EXPERIENCE TOUR LEG 2 - EUROPE

Globsen - Stockholm - Sweden

  1. The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)
  2. Gloria / Van Morrison's Gloria (snippet) / Patti Smith's Gloria (snippet)
  3. Vertigo
  4. I Will Follow / Philippians 4:7 (snippet)
  5. Iris (Hold Me Close)
  6. Cedarwood Road
  7. Song For Someone
  8. Sunday Bloody Sunday / When Johnny Comes Marching Home (snippet)
  9. Raised By Wolves / Psalm 23 (snippet)
  10. Until the End of the World / Love and Peace or Else (snippet) / Words (snippet)
  11. (Intermission - The Fly)
  12. Invisible
  13. Even Better Than The Real Thing Fish Out of Water Mix
  14. Mysterious Ways / Burning Down The House (snippet)
  15. Elevation
  16. Sweetest Thing
  17. Every Breaking Wave
  18. October
  19. Bullet the Blue Sky / Ode To Joy (snippet) / 19 (snippet)
  20. Zooropa
  21. Where the Streets Have No Name / California (There Is No End To Love) (snippet)
  22. Pride (In the Name of Love)
  23. With or Without You

  24. encore(s):
  25. City of Blinding Lights
  26. Beautiful Day / Ultraviolet (Light My Way) (snippet)
  27. Mother And Child Reunion (snippet) / One / Invisible (snippet)