Roxette bridged an 18-year gap with a return to Ireland to perform their hits, for what could be the last time on these shores. Last year they released their first studio album (‘Charm School’) in over 10 years due to the fact that Marie has been battling a number of health issues and straight away you could see from her performance that this wasn’t the same act we saw in 1994, although that didn’t take from what was a fun-filled packed evening of hits.
They opened with ‘Dressed for Success’, ‘Sleeping In My Car’ and ‘The Big L’ before Marie slowed it all down with the beautiful ‘Spending My Time’. As Per told the crowd ‘It’s being 18 years, time flies when you’re having fun’ he joked that he recognised some of the familiar faces in the crowd from their last visit. Some noughties hits (‘Stars’ and ‘She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)’ came next, mixed in with album tracks (‘Perfect Day’ and ‘Things Will Never Be The Same’) before Per spoke again. ‘This next song is 25 years old this year, and it took us from a cold Sweden to a warm Hollywood’, his intro to ‘It Must Have Been Love’ which had everyone joining in, before they started the song properly.
The catchy ‘Opportunity Nox’ and lesser known ‘7twenty7’ were next, followed by Marie doing ‘Fading Like a Flower’ while Per gave us ‘Crash! Boom! Bang!’. He spoke about writing a song with only one-chord and gave it to us in the form of ‘How Do You Do’ which gelled into ‘Dangerous’. One of the guitarists gave us a rendition of ‘Dirty Old Town’ before balloons were released at the start of ‘Joyride’, a fitting end the show. Back onstage for a well deserved encore the words ‘we couldn’t leave without singing this one’ introduced ‘Listen to Your Heart’ followed by the song that started it all for them, ‘The Look’, before slowing down into a finale of the beautiful ‘Church Of Your Heart’.
There’s no denying the amount of hits they’ve had, and we saw all of them tonight. I’ve no criticism of this performance, only a tinge of sadness at the thought that we won’t see Marie touring with Roxette again. From her point of you, it must have been love, but it’s certainly over now. but on this performance they’re still the Swedish Pop Mafia..
DUBLIN O2 ARENA, 9/7/12
Dressed for Success / Sleeping In My Car / The Big L / Spending My Time / Stars / She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio) / Perfect Day / Things Will Never Be The Same / It Must Have Been Love / Opportunity Nox / 7Twenty7 / Fading Like a Flower / Crash! Boom! Bang! / How Do You Do / Dangerous / Joyride / Listen to Your Heart / The Look / Church Of Your Heart
See Roxette’s OFFICIAL WEBSITE for the full list.
Review and photograph by Mick Lynch.
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[five-star-rating]