“We had to cancel our vacation to play here for you, and it was our pleasure to do so!”

These were the words of greeting Ronnie Atkins (vocals) let fly over the small, yet dedicated, crowd gathered before the Festival Stage.
The smallness, I am sure, was simply due to the late announcement of Pretty Maids playing here at Sweden Rock, and this was in turn due to a last minute cancelation of Ratt, who were supposed to be playing now.
As things are, I know of at least a few good people who gladly welcomed the change; for my own part, I know neither of these bands, so the change didn’t really mean all that much…

The Maids, who may not be as pretty as they used to be, were still glad to be playing their hard rock/heavy metal mix, that much was obvious from looking at them, and they displayed a good amount of routine and stage-presence for the early playing time.
They also pulled some good responses out of the audience, like the dancing man and son during Back To Back (known to me through Hammerfall’s cover version).
Later, when they reached their greatest hits towards the end of the show a loud sing-along erupted in Please Don’t Leave Me, and after shortly leaving the stage and then returning with Red, Hot And Heavy, they managed to get several of the heavy-footed rockers dancing to their pipe once again.

One question which I know had been on some people’s minds was how the band would work with their newly acquired bassist; one Hal Patino from King Diamond.
Although his general appearance was a tad darker than that of the rest of the band, his playing lacked nothing as far as I could hear, and he also made an effort on stage, which is always appreciated!

Now, I am no connoisseur of Pretty Maids as I’ve already mentioned, nor do I listen much to their style of hard-rock/metal as a whole, so the whole thing didn’t grab me in any certain way, but in fairness I should add that Lunah (our photographer), who do like them, and the others I mentioned in the start, thoroughly enjoyed the concert.

Setlist:

Pandemonuim
I.N.V.U.
Wake Up To The Real World
Little Drops Of Heaven
Scream
Queen Of Dreams
Final Day Of Innocence
Walk Away
We Came To Rock
Back To Back
Please Don't Leave Me
Love Games
Future World
Red, Hot And Heavy