Sabaton’s contribution to this years’ Sweden Rock Festival was a very short one indeed, but as both Lunah (Lauridsen) and I had been very impressed with their performance as they supported Hammerfall on tour earlier this year, we still felt that this was one of the shows we absolutely could not allow ourselves to miss. Going over to the Zeppelin Stage we ran into my brother and his wife, which we promptly pulled along with us!

As this festival-day coincided with the Swedish National Day, Sabaton had been specially invited to do a one-of show playing the National Anthem for us.
This was the first show which I noticed to be late (about 15 minutes according to the time-schedule in the festival program), but when they were finally ready the show was announced by all three of Sweden Rock Festival’s compere’s; Orvar Säfström, Ronny Svensson and Anders S. Nilsson (all known Swedish TV-personalities with a love for rock) and as soon as they were done the urban camouflage clad men from Falun ran onto the stage in all their glory.

They delivered a pretty straight-forward heavy metal version of our National Anthem, which the extremely large audience readily sang along to, and as soon as it was over Joakim Brodén said;”We’re not allowed to play anymore, but we don’t give a fuck!”
After this well-placed comment the stage was lit by towering sprays of sparklers and the band-backdrop was revealed, after which Sabaton gave a stellar performance of their own song Primo Victoria, to which the audience themselves got to sing the first verses, and everyone was jumping up and down with delight.
The song was ended with the last lines of the National Anthem, and after this they really had to leave. Sadly.

Setlist:

Du Gamla, Du Fria (Richard Dybeck cover)
Primo Victoria