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To quote a friend's coworker when they found out she was going to this live: "Why would you want to watch a bunch of old men in sequins?" (paraphrasing)
Because their music was a big part of my childhood and I never expected to get to see them live twice within the same decade when the band split up in 2011, that's why. Also, because live music is fun.
So, last night I went to see The Ark perform in Γrebro. As mentioned, they split up 15 years ago, but to celebrate their 30 year anniversary they decided to hold a special tour. That was delayed due to the pandemic, but in the summer of 2022 they finally held their tour. They seem to have been happy with how great the response was to their tour, so while I honestly didn't expect them to have another tour until their 40 year anniversary, we didn't have to wait that long.
Because! In 2025 they started releasing new music again. So far there are three new songs released, as of typing this diary entry. And this summer they've had another tour, the live in Γrebro one of the last stops.
I was invited to pre-gaming, but I had work so I couldn't attend that. =P
I shoooould start by writing a little about the warmup acts, shouldn't I?
There were two warmup acts. The first was called Fred Soila. To be honest, I'd never heard of them, and due to knowing that the evening was going to be really long and needing our legs to last the entire night, we did sit them out (we're not old but we sure aren't getting any younger). We could hear them from where we sat though, it sounded pretty good.
I have no photos of them, sorry.
The second warmup act was Melody Club. I'd heard their name before, but couldn't connect it to any songs. Well, until I heard their music. I'd actually heard a few of their songs before, probably from back when I still listened more often to the radio.
They were good, I enjoyed it.
The clip below is a clip from one of the songs I was actually familiar with!
The Ark started performing about 21:30, and since this is Sweden in late August, it was quite cold. I did not dress for the weather. Luckily I bought the tour t-shirt, so I had something else to put on to keep at least a little bit warmer.
Not all of these images are in order, mostly because of some photos being taken in portrait mode and some in landscape, so it simply looks better when they're organised together.
The last time they toured they had a big sign with their logo in the back, this time they had a gigantic TV screen. It opened up! The triangle shape behind Ola Salo (the singer) actually opened up so they could enter and exit from up there, which was cool.
To be honest, this is the first time I've been to a live with a huge screen and that many moving lights. The closest I've gotten to anything similar is watching the Nordic Cosplay Championship at NΓ€rcon a few times, since they've also got a big screen behind the cosplayers, but that is very different lol.
The above clip is from the song Father of a Son, which was released in Sweden in 2002, while same sex adoption was not yet legal here, so that song is about that. I do think part of the song fits the current climate about the fight for trans rights.
This section that's in the video specifically:
"And you can legislate and oppress
And you can make my life a mess
But you can't change the way I feel
Or convince me that my wish is unreal
And you can strike me down
And fence me
And you can claim
That there's opinion against me
But I'll still win over You, Sir
Cause if you fight Love
You're always a loser"
"Let's create a world where we can all love freely", to quote nonbinary chaos mascot Chiitan.
The clip below is from the song One of us is gonna die young, which you can probably guess both by the lyrics sung and the background. I love the casette tape imagery, since they were active in the 90's-00's it fits.
In the center image below they're taking us to gay church (with the song Prayer for the Weekend). They have several songs with religious imagery, songs about losing faith, throwing away religious guilt (thinking about Breaking up with God specifically on that one), etc.
Related: Did you know that the singer has played both Jesus and Judas in different productions of Jesus Christ Superstar?
When I say that The Ark was and still is big in Sweden, I mean it. When they won the swedish outtakes for Eurovision in 2007 with their song The Worrying Kind, the votes consisted part of the people calling in, part a professional jury (when they also added a jury consisting or judges from otrher countries I got fed up cus what the fuck kinda bs is that?). The people and jury almost never agree on what they like. This song was the only time I can remember everyone actually agreeing that they had to win and represent us in ESC.
So you can imagine how angry a lot of swedes were when they placed 18th out of 24.
Side note: When I was a kid, my mum told me and my brothers "He's gay but he's married to a woman." Mum, that's called bisexual (neither she nor we knew the term bisexual in the 2000's though). He literally sings about kissing and fucking both men and women in their songs (exhibit A), I don't see how the concept of bisexuality still managed to slip past her (ah, no wait, biphobia). She knows and understands what being bi is nowadays though.
I actually ended up scooching a little bit closer to the stage bit by bit, completely separating from the group I arrived with, cus I like to be smack dab in the center, or, if I can, up front.
I'm fairly certain they finished the 2022 live with the same song, but honestly, Calleth You, Cometh I is a pretty good song to end on. I never saw them live before their original split so I have no idea if this was a thing they did back then too.
This is the front and back of the T-shirt I bought.
Since I never wear black in my day to day life (well, almost never, I prefer light clothes), I bought it in the biggest size they had so I can use it as a night gown (thank you friend of a friend I met for the first time last night for doing the same first cus I thought that was a good idea).
The shirt is super soft. I am currently wearing it, it's very comfortable.