Peter Tägtgren and Pain was the opening act of the second day of Sweden Rock Festival, and they did so on the medium sized Sweden Stage.
At exactly noon, Pain went on with a blast of silver and black confetti filling the air, and the song I’m Going In blasting out of the speakers.

“Sweden Rock, are you hung over?!”
- Peter Tägtgren (vocals/guitar)

This was the sentence with which Tägtgren greeted us, and he was answered with a loud and assuring “YEAH!”
Normally, when playing at this hour of the day I would imagine Mr. Tägtgren himself to be the most hung over of us all, but quite astonishingly he and the rest of the band seemed more vital than ever before (and they are normally a lively bunch to begin with). And even though we had answered yes to the question, the well-filled hill was alive and kicking (figuratively speaking), with shouts and hands held high.
This was something the band appreciated, as Tägtgren mentioned how happy he was with finally playing here, but also how happy he was that people had shown up. Given the time of day, he had imagined himself playing only for the people cleaning the toilets.

But hands were held high as I said, and as the clapping to the beat began in Suicide Machine it seemed it would take no end as it continued song after song.
Also our voices were put to the test however, as the audience was given full control of the singing in the first verse of Shut Your Mouth. This was possibly to give Tägtgren some recreational time as he had taken it upon himself to perform all vocals for Follow Me just before, a duty otherwise shared by Anette Olzon (Nightwish).

Sound ways we were well blasted by the live instruments; however, the pre-recorded electronic stuff suffered from a low volume, which made it pretty hard to pick up at times.
Towards the end of the show Johan Husgafvel’s bass got turned up a few notches as well, for some unknown reason, which sadly made the guitars disappear a bit.
On the whole however, it was better than expected, and worked great in the live situation.

Of course, the show also contained moments of spontaneous humour, as Tägtgren, Husgafvel and guitarist Michael Bohlin changed microphones with each other frequently during the end of On And On. It might sound lame now; it was one of those moments where you just had to be there, I think.
Some planning had also been going on behind Tägtgren’s back, as both Husgafvel and Bohlin suddenly snuck up on him and buried his face in pies! This was due to Peter Tägtgren having his birthday just the day before.
So as the last song on the setlist, Bye/Die, was skipped, the concert ended with a loud Happy Birthday sing-along where the entire crowd joined in.

Setlist:

I’m Going In
Monkey Business
Zombie Slam
Suicide Machine
Stay Away
Bitch
Dancing With The Dead
Don’t Care
Just Hate Me
End Of The Line
Nailed To The Ground
It’s Only Them
On And On
Same Old Song
Follow Me
Shut Your Mouth