Montreal

Only a day after moving into my new house in Lebanon, New Hampshire, I took off for a trip north of the border, to Montréal.  It was a trip I had been wanting to take for years, to finally see my favourite band, Ace of Base, in concert!  They had not made a trip to North America since their 1995 to promote their second album The Bridge which features their hit song "Beautiful Life."  I didn´t see them in concert then because I was all of nine years old, but even then they were my favourite band.  I tried several times while I was in Europe to see them, but even then, they only performed in Estonia, Lativa and Lithuania.  All three are countries I would like to visit one day, but, they are not serviced by the budget airlines from Western Europe, and so a weekend trip there would have cost me about a month´s pay, which didn´t seem worth it for a concert if I was going by myself.  Of course, they came to Spain about a week after I moved back to the Americas (figures, doesn´t it).

So this time, with the band performing only a few hours drive away, I decided I had to go.  Despite all the build up, my expectations were low.  The two singers who were in the band in my childhood have left.  One left after a fan tried to stab her sister.  The sister (and second singer) left the band a little over a year ago, due to the record companies demands.  So the band hired 2 new singers and I had not been impressed by their new music with the new girls, or with their versions of the songs that made them famous.  Anyway, I decided to go ahead and see the concert because I probably wouldn´t get another chance.

Boy was I pleasantly surprised!

They started off with what is probably their best known song The Sign.  Then they sang their most famous song in Europe, Life is a Flower.  Then they sang Vision in Blue, which is my favourite song from the album with the 2 new singers.  Next up were Lucky Love and Clara singing a cover of Russian Roulette by Rihanna, and another cover song that I did not recognize.  Happy Nation, Black Sea, Cruel Summer and Golden Ratio were their next songs.  After that they had more songs, but since I am posting this months later, I do not remember which they were, sorry.  Very anti-climactic, I know