Europe Perth Review @ Perth Concert Hall

We’re seated, in the dark, when the thunder sounds at Perth Concert Hall. It’s 16 May and we’ve only waited 35 years for this.

Keyboard introduces the first song and when the lights come on, Joey Tempest is centre stage, his signature, white mic-stand horizontal in the air, head thrown back.

For the first moment in history, an audience has seen Europe on stage in Australia. It’s the title track and first single from their latest release, 2017's ‘Walk The Earth’. The guitar is straight out of the '80s, like Mum’s lasagne.


Founding member, vocalist and main songwriter, Joey throws his mic stand around and sounds exactly like the records. Sitting becomes too much for some fans, compelled to stand for these Swedish rock stalwarts.


Click here to view more photos from the show.

"Rock now, rock the night." They’re not pretentious – they look like rock stars and they sure sound like rock stars. But they’re not trying to look like they’re 20 – nor do they really look like they’re in their mid-50s.

Black is their uniform: Joey in a studded, leather shirt; guitarist and fellow founding member John Norum dons a black denim jacket; leather jackets sported by John Levén on bass and Mic Michaeli behind keys.



Drummer Ian Haugland is heavy on the double kick and pulls out a hugely entertaining solo to the 'William Tell Overture' with a Monty Python intro. It’s incredible and hilarious.

“Thank you so much for waiting for us all these years,” says Tempest before plucking away on a Maton acoustic guitar for ‘Open Your Heart’. Joey plays guitar for a few songs during the show, mostly a Gibson electric like he does in ‘Days Of Rock n Roll’.

Some fool in the crowd is calling out “Iron Maiden”.


Tempest asks us if we have any questions. Someone in the front asks him if they’re tired, but he tells us they spent a few days in Indonesia before Perth so they’re doing fine and they sure don’t look tired, they’re putting on a great rock show.



“Let’s go back to the beginning... this is one of the first songs we wrote... we haven’t played this in a while. It’ll be fun - this is ‘Seven Doors Hotel’.” Wow – they must be some pretty heavy doors.

A soft, piano intro follows; people raise their arms gently with joy. It’s 'Carrie' and they let us sing the name ourselves a few times.

“How about something from ‘Prisoners In Paradise’?” Joey asks. “How about (pause) ‘Prisoners In Paradise’?”

“We’re just children of tomorrow, hanging on to yesterday.” A timelessly applicable commentary.

“Let the good times rock.” 
They leave the stage, without bothering to pretend it’s the end. I respect that. Plus, you have to know what’s coming, right?



They return and start a song that has a few similarities to the one we’re holding out for, and for a few moments I thought we were going to be let down with some kind of ‘re-invented’ version.

Instead, it’s ‘Cherokee’, from the same album (released in 1986), rounding out the performance of four of their top five streamed tracks.


Just… one… to go… and we can barely contain ourselves.

That righteous riff starts: the one Joey wrote in college and kept in a drawer for many years until the making of the third album when he gave it to the band saying: “Maybe we can do something nice” with it.

The crowd begins to stand, rising in pockets at a time like it’s school assembly. It's ‘The Final Countdown’. And it’s magnificent. I’m moshing gleefully with no shame at all, in my seat row in Perth Concert Hall (once voted as having the best acoustics for venues of its kind in Australia).

Maybe you have to be Swedish to be able to write such an incredibly enthralling, uplifting, ball of joy and package it in a heavy, leather-laden rock band.

Though it does make me want to buy a Toyota.