This was one of the stops at The Swedish Sabaton tour where Hulkoff is the support act for leading Swedish metal giants Sabaton. It was the first time for me at this venue, as it was kinda cool with a very industrial feeling . It is besides Göta Kanal (The Göta Channel aka “the blue ribbon of Sweden”). Neither Hulkoff nor Sabaton are artists that are in need of a huge presentation as both are well-known in Sweden and abroad.
The show’s kicked off when Hulkoff entered the stage at 19h30 and of his trademarks is he performs his songs both in English and Swedish. Pär Hulkoff is a man who keeps on gives us a treasure chest of great songs. I would say that the solo project is more dedicated to the history than Raubtier which is more aimed to highlight issues in the society today. What I truly love about Hulkoff’s lyrics is that there are layers in them. You need to listen more than one time as he is a master when it comes to play with words and metaphor’s.
Hulkoff played songs from all his solo albums and it was cheering, hand clapping and sing-a-long the whole way. Some of my all-time favourites Ingvar, Einherjer, Holmgård and Scythes were played. It was a tearful moment when he presented the musicians who had joined him on this tour. Jon Skäre on drums, Karl Johansson on bass and Daniel Jakobsson on guitar. When he came to Karl he presented him as the grandson to a music legend, namely Jan Johansson ( famous Swedish jazz pianist 1931-1968). When Karl played the intro to Visa från Utanmyra Hulkoff spoke the words “he is also the son to a drummer legend Anders Johansson”( at which time Jon plays a Hammerfall drum solo) “and now is Karl himself a legend in the making”. I think this presentation truly shows what kind of person Hulkoff is. He shows with those words that he is a man standing steady with both feet on the ground and can easily let other musicians get their moment! That is truly respect in my eyes.
Sabaton made a good show. We heard some of their biggest songs such as Carolus Rex, Bismarck, Red Baron, Livstid i krig and of course the battle to make them play Swedish pagans. I can say that both Sabaton and Hulkoff have been great! The “in between talk’s” where almost slapstick as it goes between them on stage, but they also in interact with the audience. The only minus at this concert was that it was very crowded and hard to move around. If a person is short like me (160 centimetre’s ) then it is hard to see over all tall(er) persons! They also got a minus for no water strategically placed. This lead to long queue’s at the bar just to get water. This easily could have been solved by placing water out on some tables around the venue. Water is the easiest way to make people stand on their feet and not getting to drunk!
Yours Sincerely!
Stina
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