Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Date of concert: 13th of August

For me and my boyfriend the 13th had been a holy date ever since we heard that the Veruca Salt was going to perform live at the Stockholm Water Festival. To be honest I had a hard time believing that it was true until the band entered the stage that beautiful summer day. What I mean is that not too many great bands ever come to Sweden and that the best band ever was coming felt unreal. Veruca Salt was to perform first on the Riddarholm's stage on water that Wednesday before Silverchair and Dinosaur JR and were only scheduled for an hour. We were there little over two hours before it was about to start and got to stand at the fence only a few meters from the scene. At 18.00 p.m. the band entered the stage and started to rock my world away with Straight.

I discovered Veruca Salt almost by accident (or maybe more like fate) on a snowy January afternoon two years ago when I was strolling around in a CD-store at my bus stop waiting to get home from school. I remember looking for an album by The Verve when I saw a cool-looking album by a group with the cool-sounding name Veruca Salt. My bus were not to leave for another 15 minutes so I thought that I would give them a listen... (The album was of course American Thighs and my life has never been the same since) Anything I might have imagined about the Salts performing live was nothing compared with the real thing. I did not think that it was possible to love a band more than I did before the concert but I was sooooooo wrong. The energy of the band was overwelming and everything else started to fade away untill the only I you could see or hear was them.

Nina and Louise were really enjoing themselves on the stage talking to the audience and making fun of each other. After the first and last song they threw flowers at the audience but I did not get a hold of one and if it hadn't been for the big smile I got from Louise when she saw how dissapointed I was I would probably have asked my strong boyfriend to kill some little girl to get me one...

Songs:

- straight
- venus man trap
- don't make me prove it
- with david bowie
- victrola
- awesome
- volcano girls
- seether (slow version)
- seether
- benjamin
- spiderman'79
- shutterbug
- earthcrosse
- shimmer like a girl

The songs I remember the best are Earthcrosser, Spiderman'79 and Shimmer like a girl. Earthcrosser because Nina started to giggle right before every scream passage (hihi...lip...GLOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSS etc.) because she knew (rightfully) that we would go insane and scream along with her. Spiderman'79 because I love it so much and did not think they were going to play it and Shimmer like a girl because I had never heard it before and that they said it was going to be the last song and I never wanted it all to end.

Inbeetween two songs Louise started to ask if her Swedish friend was in the audience. Her Swedish pronounciation was horrible and I think that even if her friend had been there he or she would never have been able to figure out that it was his/her name that was called out...

Anyway Nina got bored with it and told Louise with indignation that it was about time they played another song before we got sick of them.

(Like that would ever happen...)

I was not the only one to get Louise's big smile that afternoon. My boyfriend reached out his long arms towards her and yelled something intelligent like "I love you" and got a respond that normaly would have made me really jealous but after the consert we have an understanding. He can dump me for Louise but only if I get Stacy or perhaps Nina in return...

I did not mean for this review to be so personal but I can't be objective when it comes to Veruca Salt.

To me their consert was perfection. Nothing I have ever seen and probably nothing I ever will see can compete with that Stockholm consert. Me and my Boyfriend Johan had planned to see Silverchair and Dinosaur jr as well but when the Salts had played their final tune and even Louise had left the stage and stopped to torment her guitar we did not feel like anything but more Veruca Salt and since that was out of the question we did not feel like anything at all. I have been to some pretty cool conserts since "The Concert" but somehow, no matter how hard the other artists try, they all seem soo...

by anna -97