Sara Hammerzmith

So, it was time for the last concert on Swedish soil for a very long time, and I got on the bus already at 6 in the morning because of a work interview I had scheduled in the late mornings. It was pretty nice, I must admit, to go this early – first and foremost, you actually got somewhere in time and had time to do things. Secondly, the bus was pretty empty which is the best, if you ask me.

So, I got to Stockholm already at 10, locked up my luggage and headed over to the interview, which went quicker than I thought it would, so here I was, left with a lot of dead time to spare. I headed over to Motormännen’s office to get my international drivers license, only to remember they didn’t open ’til 12, so I went back to city to do all my errands – pick up a new case of translucent powder as I am, after a few years, starting to run out of mine, picked up sunglasses + a top at Gina Tricot before Australia, found some cheap sale earrings at H&M which will do wonders at Powerwolf if I don’t find the perfect ones… When all of this was done, the clock was really only around 11.

Damn damn damn. How to kill time? There’s only one place: Science – Fiction book store. First and foremost, it takes time to go there, and once there… yeah. This is my kind of place. I went over the Manga section pretty quickly, I still haven’t finished the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon mangas I already have at home, so I figured that could wait a little. Then I hit the Sci-Fi department… and got stuck there for a while. Partly I was looking for the books in the The Fifth Wave series, but since I forgot the authors name it took a bit of time. At first, I planned to get “Mazerunner”, “The Fifth Wave” and then a third book, which turned out to be “Divergent”, but I changed “Mazerunner” for “The Endless Ocean”. If I remember correctly, I could not wait to get onto the next “The Hunger Games” book, so I might as well have all parts in the The Fifth Wave series already from the start.

Gladly, this killed a lot of time, and Motormännen had finally opened so I went there, signed up for the license which only took 15 minutes to make, or less, really, so I was left there with SO MUCH time before the check in on hotel’s started. So I headed over to Espresso House to sit off some time, where I could also use my new phone. You see, for some reason, the SIM card won’t activate so I need WiFi for now.

After a while, Robert started to head into town, and I quickly checked into the hotel, dumped my stuff, fixed my make up and packed for Toto and headed down to see him. It was soooo good to see him again, and after looking around Shock for a small moment we went to C.U.M where we spent a very, very long time since Robert was getting his measurements for new pants, and me myself, I found the jacket I’ll be using for all Civil War shows in the future. Need to save up!

After this, we went and picked up Michelle at the bus station and went to a All-You-Can-Eat thai buffé and  I think we all overate. Seriously, I almost felt ill afterwards, and I thanked God it was Toto we were about to see, and not Korpiklaani or some other band we jump around to a lot.

We got to Fryshuset around 10 minutes past 19, which was decent time. Toto was about to begin at 19.30, and I got a little stressed getting in the bathroom line, but we all made it on time, and a little late, like, 19.35, Toto began their show with “Running Out of Time”.

They continued on strongly with “I’ll Supply The Love” and “Burn”. “Stranger in Town”, the ever so wonderful “I Won’t Hold You Back” was ripped off before the whole arena exploded in “Hold The Line”. What else to be expected?

They continued on with “Georgy Porgy”, “Afraid of Love”, “Bend”… before it started. You know, that song.

“Pamela”

And I mean… I love this song. I think most of you might know it, or perhaps not, but ah damn. It was so great to hear it live again, and I died as much this time as last time. After this, we got a piano solo from David Paich before they moved on with “Great Expectations”.

This was followed by “Without Your Love” and “Bridge of Sighs” before it was time for Steve Luthaker to grant us one of his amazing solos. Seriously, that man! “Holy War,” “The Road Goes On”, “Orphan” and lastly “Rosanna” wrapped up this night perfectly before they left for a moment only to come back.

At first they ripped off “On The Run / Goodbye Eleonora” before ending the whole show with an eleven minute long rendition of “Africa”. Seriously, the sing alongs in Africa, the rythms, I can’t even begin to tell you.

This was a great night, I tell you. A clam, almost… atmospheric night where you experience some of the finest musicians practice what they do the best – performing fine piece of music and arrangements that made me close my eyes many times throughout the night only to hear the music itself live without the sight.

This was an amazing night, to the extent where I barely even know what to write about it. This was an amazing way to leave Sweden for a while. Thank you, Toto!

// Sara

This entry was posted on February 19, 2016 at 1:30 pm and is filed under Concerts, Music, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.