Pain Of Salvation were quite alone on the stage this night at The Rock, and they took this opportunity to give us one heck of a show!

As the doors had opened at around 5 p.m. and the band didn’t go on until about 9:30 p.m., it wasn’t so surprising to see that the hall was nearly packed, but then again, I believe it was not only the long opening hours, but most certainly the band which had managed to pull people out of their cosy homes and into The Rock this fine night; I had at least heard from several people beforehand how excited they were about going!
And with good rights I might add; already from the start, the band captivated us, showing both a sense of humour and also giving homage to their Swedish heritage by using Magnus Och Brasse’s Svordomsvisan as an intro. This really got all the Swedes in the hall going, whereas the Danes were scratching their necks, trying to figure out what was going on. This divide would be even more evident later on, but I’ll return to that further down.

Pain Of Salvation themselves kicked the show off with Of Two Beginnings, and already from the very beginning I was struck by what an amazing sound they were letting loose. Not that The Rock’s sound isn’t normally more than acceptable for a venue this size, but the Swedes were really pushing for perfection here!
Not only that, but they had also brought along their own extra lightshow, just to put a capitol P in performance, and as lights normally are not, on the contrary to the aforementioned sound, The Rock’s strong side, this was very appreciated.
It was not directly a standard setlist the boys had put together either, and several of the songs showcased their calmer, more introspective side, without leaving some of the faster material out of course, but it still made the show feel gripping, deeper and more heart-wrenching even at times than your normal show would, but then again, Pain Of Salvation isn’t just your normal band, now is it?

Well, what about the crowd then?
As I’ve already mentioned, both Swedes and Danes were heavily represented here tonight, all joined in brotherly love of good music, the Swedes made known through their aforementioned recognition of the intro melody, and the Danes proving a bit more visual by a group in the frontline holding up a Danish flag embroidered with the song-title People Passing By (they had their hopes come true, as the song was played this night).
But this comradely behaviour was not be thought Pain Of Salvation frontman Daniel Gildenlöw, and he opened up for a vocal border war, by first having all the Swedes shout, and then comparing the volume of that of the Danish throats. May I just say that my dear Sweden failed miserably to impress anyone, and as a measure of resurrecting the faith in his country’s abilities, Gildenlöw suggested we try it again, but this time the bandmembers would, as their nationality bid them, to be on the Swedes side, utilizing both mic’s and instruments for further effect. This time around we came closer to a tie, with the Swedes winning marginally...

The band-members were really showing an enthusiasm which went above and beyond the normal, as they were literally all over the stage, jumping climbing up on things, and generally grooving and rocking along.
Not only that, but they had brought some extra equipment along, for added performance value. Before Of Dust (I believe it was) a tall construction was placed on the middle of the stage, and before long Gildenlöw had climbed a small ladder behind and used this as a stylized speaker’s chair. Three large banners were unrolled, together displaying the signs R S 1, hinting at the title of their latest album, Road Salt One.
The last song of the evening was then finished off by a massive, collective drumming session by everyone in the band (except keyboardist Fredrik Hermansson), for which several additional drums had been placed on stage.

Sadly, technique was not a friend of Pain Of Salvation this evening, as would be evident through several painstaking problems throughout the gig.
The first, and least, was a short microphone dropout of Gildenlöw’s; however, at this point the enthusiastic singing of the backing vocalists and the audience saved the day, and Gildenlöw himself was quickly back in the game as well.
Things should sadly not go as smooth later on though, as firstly the wireless sender or receiver of session live-bassist Per Schelander went out, causing some time to go before he got hooked up directly with the chord, which, as it was meant for a wireless setting, in turn was much too short, and severely hindered his performance.
Not two seconds had gone after the bass was back in order though, before the guitar of Gildenlöw went completely out as well. Attempts at changing guitar, and later chords, proved fruitless, and finally the entire show had to be put on a short break as stage-hands were working frantically at getting the tech-stuff back in order. After all of these trying times, the show was finally allowed to go on unhindered for the rest of the duration...

So, to shortly round up this review, which may be one of the lengthiest ones I’ve written so far, I would just like to say that even with all the technical problems, and even with leaving out all my live favourites such as Disco Queen and America, I bend in the dust before the band, and loudly proclaims to anyone interested (or not) in hearing, that this was without the shadow of a doubt the best Pain Of Salvation concert I have ever witnessed!

Setlist:

Of Two Beginnings
Ending Theme
People Passing By
Linoleum
Ashes
Diffidentia (Breaching The Core)
Welcome To Entropia (not on the setlist)
Winning A War
No Way
Road Salt
Of Dust (not on the setlist)
Kingdom Of Loss
Falling
The Perfect Element