So… I went to another concert. The first one since 2005, when I saw Judas Priest! I was going to go see Slayer and Slipknot in there between somewhere but I got ill and was unable to go and ever since then I just haven’t felt like going to any concert again. But last week this all changed.
I was at a local pizza place and saw the ad outside the nightclub GG for an exciting new event at the nightclub; “The Hardrock Cave”. I know, it’s a silly name, I didn’t pick it :p . Anyway, the band that was going to perform at the club was, to my surprise, Lillasyster. A band which I’ve followed since the start because it’s made up of old members of one of my favorite bands LOK (A band I even made a fansite for). Right there and then I decided that I had to go see them, I could not make any excuses for not going. Even if I had to go myself to the concert (which is a total bore) I would go. And sure enough, everyone else had a convenient excuse not for going so I went myself.
The entry fee was 80 SEK (+ 20 SEK for hanging up your coat). I was in the queue to get in right when they opened up at 22.00 since I thought the band were gonna start playing almost immediately (no information was given to when they where gonna start playing), but instead I had to wait around two hours and 15 minutes before the band got on. Which was a total borefest since I knew no one there. So I just waited in a corner drinking a few beers.
The club was very very crowded. The place had three floors, all with different themes to them. The top floor looked like an upper-class “cool in-thing” place with casino stuff. The bottom floor was the “Hardrock cave” which looked really neat and down there they played some great rock music. The ground level had the stage and the biggest bar. Before the band got on, this place was filled with techno-yuppies who were dancing to some horrible remixes of good songs. Such as Alice Coopers Poison sung by blonde bitches.
At 0.15 Lillasyster took the stage to a mild confused roar from the crowd. Then everyone who was in the area wanted to leave to get to the upper floor for their “cool”-fill with techno lameness. And everyone who was down in the “Hardrock cave” wanted to get to the stage. So there was a lot of squeezing and pushing going on until everyone was in the right place. After that, the crowd cheered loudly as the band started playing the first song “Kräkas” (swedish for “Vomiting”). A lot of people in the crowd sang along with the lyrics and it often seemed like the singer, Martin Westerstrand, didn’t need to sing at all. During this song I was kind of in the back waiting to be able to make my way to the front and during the next song “Lokpest” I managed to get to the front and start headbanging like crazy, etc. 
They performed a short but tight set with some great songs in it (you can see the setlist further down on this page). To me, the only low-point was when they performed their hit single Umbrella (Rihanna Cover). The crowd seemed to love it though and sang along, jumping around, etc. But the crowd was much more enthusiastic about the hardrock anthem “Hårdrock”, their first single “Berätta det för Lina” and the old LOK hit “Lok står när de andra faller” than “Umbrella”. The place was so crowded, so hot and so loud that some people needed to be transported back out of the pit. I had to pick several people up of the floor and kinda shove them back so they wouldn’t get stepped on or even fallen on, cause a lot of people seemed to be falling over when the crowd was pushing back and forth. 
The speakers on both sides of the stage had people hanging on them, people stood up on the bar, on the couches in the back and a few where hanging from stripper poles in the corner. Everyone clearly wanted to be involved in some serious headbanging! In the back there where two camera guys and in the middle of the crowd there was a third, so I’m sure some kind of video will surface sooner or later.
Martin spoke to the crowd now and then, or should I say, attempted to speak to the crowd now and then… I remember that after the first song he said “Usually by this point I try to say something interesting, but this is Uddevalla so let’s just play the next song”. And later he responded to one of the guys hanging from the speakers with “I don’t know what the fuck you just said but you’re fucking crazy and I love it!”.
They ended with their first single “Berätta det för Lina” and during this song the crowd went berserk. It was a animalistic joy that came over me as I headbanged away while feeling the motions of the crowd. There’s something great about just letting go and enjoying something together in a crowd, all screaming their lungs out, headbanging like crazy and working up a sweat.
After the last song Martin said that anyone could come downstairs and talk to them in the “Hardrock Cave” afterwards if they felt like it. I’m not sure what happened down there since I left immediately afterwards, I was dead tired at this point and just wanted to get out of there. But I’m sure the people that did stay to hang out with Lillasyster had a good time, since the guys are really, really friendly to their fans. They even used to have a cellphone number on their myspace page that you could call whenever you wanted to talk to the guys.
I left the place covered in sweat, with a sore throat, sore neck and with an intense ringing in my ear (since I forgot my earplugs). But I couldn’t have been more satisfied. Once you learn to love hardrock, you don’t stop loving it :).
Video
As I predicted, a video soon surfaced. Of course it’s of the worst song they played, but it’s still interesting to see just to see them perform something at this gig. Let’s hope more videos show up later.
Setlist
Here’s an approximate setlist, I’m not 100% sure on the order or if I missed a song, but I believe it’s fairly accurate.
1. Kräkas
2. Lokpest
3. Nu har jag fått nog av dig
4. Skrubbsår
5. Barn utan ben
6. Varfördärför
7. Sug min
8. Hårdrock
9. Umbrella
10. Lok står när de andra faller
11. Berätta det för lina
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