If you'd told me 30 years ago that one day I would gladly go and see Europe perform all of The Final Countdown album live not only would I have fallen about laughing but I'd have also hurled a stream of abuse at you for being so dumb as to suggest such a thing.
Yet scroll forward thirty years and that's exactly what happened. We went along to see the 30th anniversary show for an album that may have shifted millions of copies but is still for me Europe's worst album. Add to that the fact they had decided to play all of the latest album War Of Kings and on paper this could be a very hard slog of a show.
Well we made sure to arrive super early so we could see all of the best band on the bill. Yes, I'm talking about the legendary Electric Boys. We managed to make it to the bar before they came on at about 7.20. Still it's always a pleasure to see Conny Bloom and AJ Christell getting nice and Spaced Out for us. Damn, they laid down a great spaced out riff and started to get the place going.
Groovus Maximus really did groove like all hell. Wow, they looked and sounded great and it was good to see the Roundhouse more than two thirds full this early in the evening. Mary In The Mystery World sounded great, like it has done whenever I've seen the Electric Boys previously with some really groovy guitar and plenty of swagger.
Electrified just seemed to send sparks of energy out in all directions as they really got a lot of us going. I think the next song might have been called I'm The Judge. It featured quite a lot of rocking advice and a huge funky metal instrumental break to prove these boys done got some Schwang.
Sadly they were running out of time already and had to deny us a song played using the Sitar guitar. Instead, they closed with the classic All Lips 'n Hips which got almost everyone singing along to it and went down a storm. It was a pity they didn't get to play longer but that always seems to be the case when I see them live.
Next on were Dare. Even though they have been around since 1985 and toured with Europe in 1989, they have thankfully passed me by up to now. Originally they were an offshoot of Thin Lizzy, though they also featured Brian Cox later of D:ream fame. He's long gone and they are now a widdly cliched rock band who seem to think everyone here knows the words to all their songs and can sing along. This meant we had yawning gaps where the vocals should have been. If they were lucky maybe 30 people out of the 3000 crowd in the Roundhouse actually sang along with them, which was pretty embarrassing. They really should have been first band on and I'd have been happy to miss them as Dare really were dire.
Still, soon enough it was time for the main event and with 2 huge video screens with all kinds of graphics, Europe launched into the War Of Kings album which they played almost in the correct order leaving the title track to the end of the set,so they opened with Hole In My Pocket. It sounded like they hadn't found the right balance on the guitars as John Norum was pretty low in the mix, though that didn't stop Joey getting the place going a bit.
The Second Day sounded OK. It's still quite low slung and they hadn't really got going yet but seemed to kick up a gear on Praise You as finally someone turned up John Norum's guitar to the right level and the Keyboards also seemed to get a bit louder. Nothin' to Ya was good and angry as Joey told us about another lover being spurned. The graphics for California 405 almost overshadowed the song as I was engrossed in the split screen ride down the freeway. The music sort of became secondary.
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They then messed with the running order and slipped Angels (With Broken Hearts) into an earlier slot. This at least made me pay more attention to the music than the graphics. Then Days Of Rock & Roll really got the place going more than anything else on War Of Kings. No surprise there as it's a properly anthemic rock song and it had a great solo and a good fist pumping element to it.
Children Of The Mind brought us back down again being somewhat more thoughtful and less bombastic. Rainbow Bridge sounded cool and had some really nifty keyboards in it. There was a long instrumental break that lead into Light It Up, the last track on the album. It sounded cool here as they finished the first half with War Of Kings. That one, along with Days Of Rock & Roll are really the only two outstanding tracks on the album and yes, they both sounded really good live.
Then it was time to roll back the years to 1986 and they launched into The Final Countdown. As expected, the place went nuts and everyone sang along to every word. It was no different on Rock The Night and as usual we had a good call and response section to get everyone going.
Things then slowed down for Carrie but thankfully I couldn't see anyone with lighters in the air. Danger On The Track was the first song from the album that I don't think I've heard live before and it sounded pretty good and went down well. Ninja worked pretty well as I was by now engrossed in the slide show on the screens of shots of Europe and their fans in the 80's some of which was very funny indeed.
Sadly, Cherokee is still as relevant as when they wrote it and the protests on the trail of tears in the last month have been quite shocking. I always love the fact they can slip a song as political as this one into their set and get away with it: a real highlight. Time Has Come in this particular week is quite a scary thought, but the song wasn't and had some stellar guitar work in the middle of it.
Heart Of Stone was another song they never normally play that sounded OK. On the Loose, however, seemed to see them step up a gear and really sounded good in a slightly tongue in cheek kind of way. They got to the end of the album with Love Chaser that had enough flashy guitar and keyboard parts to keep everyone smiling and at the end of it they reprised The Final Countdown long enough to let off some fireworks and build up to a great crescendo ending. Before leaving us with no encores but then it had been a very full set.
Incidentally, this show will be available to buy on DVD next year when they start to tour to promote their next album.
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