LET'S ROCK THIS CHURCH!!

After a German co-headlining tour with Swiss rockers Gotthard in 2009 Europe's first date on the "Last Look at Eden" World Tour 2010 was planned in a sold out Paradiso in Amsterdam. The city that was named by Joey Tempest as "The Rock Capitol of Europe" as many bands start their tours over there. Paradiso is a very intimate concert hall. The acoustics is very good as the hall used to be a church.

Because we (the Lazy Rocker himself and Armand "Ummi" Ummels) are from the South of the Netherlands we had to drive over 2 hours to Amsterdam. We left earlier so we could also visit the Hard Rock Cafe which is just a few hundred meters away from Paradiso. After a few beers and a big hamburger we walked to the concert hall where we had an interview at 18.00 hrs with hitman Ian Haugland. You can read this HERE.
Last November we also attended the co-headlining show with Gotthard in Cologne where the Swedish rockers played just one hour so we were curious what surprises the set list should have during this full concert.

The band kicked off their show at 20.05 hrs by starting the bombastic intro tape which lead into "Last Look at Eden", the title track from the latest album. Frontman Joey Tempest entered the stage with a video camera to record the start of the tour. The crowd in the sold out Paradiso (over 1500 people) went wild and you could feel that it was going to be one hell of a night!!

Other songs played from "Last Look at Eden" are the rocker "Gonna Get Ready", the grower "No Stone Unturned", the beautiful ballad "New Love in Town" and in the encore the heavy track "The Beast". As Europe already released 8 studio albums they have a lot of songs to choose for the set list. Except for the first album they played songs of every studio release. "Scream of Anger" was played with great drum work from Ian Haugland. John Norum performed "Optimus", an instrumental track from one of his solo albums. "Start From The Dark", taken from the same titled album which was called by Joey Tempest as a raw diamond, also found a place on the set list.

Personal highlights were "Prisoners in Paradise, an awesome stripped version played by Joey Tempest on acoustic guitar with little help from Mic Michaeli's keyboards and Ian Haugland's drums, "Open Your Heart" where Joey Tempest started again on acoustic guitar and where the band joined him during the second chorus, and of course the stunning track "Cherokee" where the crowd went even wilder than they already were! Maybe it was because of the first date of the tour, maybe the intimate concert hall, maybe the enthusiastic audience; fact is that Europe really rocked this church!

The set ended with the party rocker "Rock The Night". The band came back for the encore with the already mentioned "The Beast" and of course with the rock anthem of all times "The Final Countdown". I heard this song so many times when I was a kid, but now it never comes out of my speakers. This night when I heard the song again, still played with so much energy and such a wild audience, I realized why it became such a mega hit!

The show ended at 21.45 hrs when Europe thanked the audience. It was my 5th Europe gig but I think this was maybe the best performance. Once again the Swedish band proved to be one of the best live bands in their genre.

Set list
20.05-21.45 hrs

01. Prelude/Last Look at Eden
02. Love Is Not The Enemy
03. Superstitious
04. Gonna Get Ready
05. Scream of Anger
06. Mic Michaeli solo/No Stone Unturned
07. Prisoners in Paradise (stripped version)
08. Open Your Heart
09. Wings of Tomorrow/ Band Introduction
10. John Norum solo/Optimus (instrumental)
11. 7th Sign
12. New Love In Town
13. Start From The Dark
14. Let The Good Times Rock
15. Always The Pretenders
16. Cherokee
17. Rock The Night

Encore
18. The Beast
19. The Final Countdown