Europe Nottingham Rock City 27-11-12

Gig number 300 for me and after a days Christmas and birthday shopping(Happy birthday Shaz) we were ready for a good night.
First up were Stonerider from Atlanta who’s stoner blues rock seemed a strange choice to support Europe but with the strength of songs like “When the Sun Goes Down” and “Under Cover” they soon made an impression.Their 30 minutes and 6 songs went down increasingly well and left to huge applause.
Half way through their latest tour of the UK to support the rave reviewed “Bag Of Bones” cd Europe hit us with a near 2 hour romp through their immense catalogue.
Here is what they played.

Riches to Rags
Not Supposed to Sing the Blues
Firebox
Superstitious
Scream of Anger
No Stone Unturned
Demon Head
Acoustic set
The World Keep on Turning
(Fleetwood Mac cover)
Drink and a Smile
Open Your Heart
Girl From Lebanon
Love Is Not the Enemy
Carrie
Sign of the Times
The Beast
Doghouse
Rock the Night
Encore:
Prelude
Last Look at Eden
The Final Countdown

In front of a far from sold out crowd,in fact there was far more at the recently held Firefest show recently held at the same venue Joey Tempest led the band from the front as if he was playing Wembley Stadium.He preened and posed his way through the first 3 songs from Bag Of Bones showing the assembled photographers every pose he knew!!
Luckily his vocals seem to grow with every tour and tonight he was on top form.
The opening trio of songs showed all that is great about Bag Of Bones.Huge riffs,thunderous drums,Hammond swirls,big choruses and solos from heaven.

Great lights and sound with everyone loud and clear.

John Norum is truly up there with the greats.He has such a superb live sound and his opening solo on “Riches To Rags”was mind blowing.His interplay with Joey throughout is top notch and the ending on “Not Supposed To Sing The Blues”where they sing and solo in unison was everything I hoped it would be!!

Ably backed by Ian Haugland on drums,John Leven on bass and Mic Michaeli on keys we soon dipped into the back catalogue with an excellent “Superstitious” and then “Scream Of Anger”knocked the walls down.

That’s what is so great about Europe.Highly melodic at all times but can go from a ballad to heavy as hell in 1 song.Although I do think they should finally drop “Carrie”as it does nothing for me and with such an extensive catalogue plenty to choose from it could be replaced by so many other songs. In fact “Bag Of Bones”the song was sadly not in the set which was strange as I think it would be a superb live song with the way the song builds.

A short acoustic set with Fleetwood Mac’s “The World Kept Turning”well sung by John Norum and he scorched through a couple of solos on his acoustic.Brilliant!Nice to hear “Open Your Heart” again too.

A short solo spot from John Norum started the second half before another welcome return of “Girl From Lebanon”and a very heavy “Love Is Not The Enemy”showed off the heavier spectrum that they aren’t known for.

Again the mighty “The Beast”and then “Doghouse”was another fantastic double header saying look at us with Joey adding extra guitar to “Doghouse”to let John do some extra soloing.

“Rock The Night”had us all in great voice before the double header encore of “Last Look At Eden” and “Countdown” finished the show on the high it deserved.

Another great night with a band that just get better in the live domain and really are at the top of their game.