PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
Since reforming nine years ago, Europe have released four albums , all receiving critical acclaim, and selling by the truck load, ‘Last Look at Eden’ was my surprise hit of 2009, as it marked a turning point in the bands musical direction, heading more into hard edged blues territory.
Paul Anthony introduced the band to a thunderous applause, before Europe opened the gig with three songs taken from their latest release ‘Bag Of Bones’. Joey commanded the stage, with John Norum content to take a back seat and let his guitar do the talking. Drummer Ian Haugland has the biggest bass drum I have ever seen, its massive, and it made the walls of the Hmv Ritz shake tonight.
With the rest of the band equally on top form, this made for a very tight performance, giving equal importance to new songs and the old favorites.
‘Superstitious’ took us back down memory lane, followed by ‘Scream of anger’ and ‘No stone unturned’ before a kick ass version of ‘Demon Head’. Europe then decided to slow things down and play an acoustic middle section of three tracks, ‘Blues’, ‘Drink And a Smile’ and ‘Open your heart’. Not many bands can get away with something like this, but Europe acoustically are seriously very good.
‘The girl from lebanon’ kick started the second half, followed by ‘love is not the enemy’
A brief chorus of ‘Puttin’ on the ritz’ by Irving berlin was a great crowd pleaser, before Joey lead the crowd in singing along to the mega ballad ‘Carrie’, ‘Sign of the times’, ‘Beast’, a seriously rocking ‘Doghouse’ followed by ‘Rock the night’, which sounded better than ever, brought the gig to a close and that was that, time to go home.
As if.
After a brief respite, Europe returned to the stage for a thunderous version of ‘Last look at eden’, easily one of the songs of the night for me, before ‘The Final Countdown’ brought the biggest cheer of the night, as they wrapped up an astonishing set at the HmvRitz to a sellout crowd.
Catch Europe on any of the remaining uk tour dates, you will not be disappointed.
SETLIST
01 RICHES TO RAGS
02 NOT SUPPOSED TO SING THE BLUES
03 FIREBOX
04 SUPERSTITIOUS
05 SCREAM OF ANGER
06 NO STONE UNTURNED
07 DEMON HEAD
08 BLUES
09 DRINK AND & SMILE
10 OPEN YOUR HEART
11 THE GIRL FROM LEBANON
12 LOVE IS NOT THE ENEMY
13 CARRIE
14 SIGN OF THE TIMES
15 BEAST
16 DOGHOUSE
17 ROCK THE NIGHT
Encore
18 LAST LOOK AT EDEN
19 The FINAL COUNTDOWN
