NEW YORK CITY – Shortly after 9 pm Roxette entered the stage at The Beacon Theatre on 74th and Broadway in New York City, USA. Before that Per and Marie had met up with lucky winners, old friends and media in the basement of the theater. The Beacon didn’t show the “sold out” sign, but it couldn’t have been far off. The place was packed with longing, happy fans of the middle aged variety. Henrik Lundquist of the NY Rangers with wife was there as well. And boy, did we have fun! From the first “Yeah yeah yeah!” in “Dressed for Success” to the last chord of “Church of Your Heart” people were jumping up and down! The audicence was wild, the band was on fire. This is easily one of the top 3 concerts I’ve ever seen. (London 1995 and Unplugged 1993). Although some, but not all, sat down when slower songs like “7Twenty7” and “Opportunity Nox” were played still the energy was tremendously high. “Damned fun night!” Per commented to The Daily Roxette, “New Yorkers can be hard to reach usually!”

During the band presentation Magnus did his normal schtick, and this time he was very good (better than ever). He talked about his Swedish Sex Machine (his bass keyboard) and how it was the only thing that made Swedes survive. Because Sweden isn’t all about fun and games you know. “It can be a like a very bad day at IKEA…”

According to some (Canadian) fans Per said “Thank you Calgary!” while I personally think he said “Thank you kindly”. Roxette’s setlist was standard, minus “Wish I Could Fly” and “Only When I Dream”. While I can’t say I missed the, in my opinion very over-rated former, I did want to hear the latter.

There’s really not much more to add. The concert was amazing and the Blue Sex Machine brought all the way from Sweden did its thing. Mission accomplished!

On a side note: TDR did an unscientific survey while we were in NYC and NO ONE we asked knew that Roxette was in town…