Flower Kings, The (October 2003)

Date of Performance: October 21, 2003
Venue: Rainbow Club, Milan, IT

The Flower Kings

In front of an audience of only two hundred people at the Rainbow Club in Milan, The Flower Kings played two and half hours of music, changing their tracklist in an evident manner: even though they are without the presence of Hasse Bruniusson, the percussionist of the group, the band have carried Daniel Gildenlöw with them for the entire length of the tour. He can be a real asset: voice, percussion, guitar and keyboards! TFK start with an unexpected medley taking a piece from the new Tomas Bodin album Sonic Boulevard, and "Church Of Your Heart" from Stardust We Are. Other unexpected tracks are represented by "My Cosmic Lover" from Back To World Of Adventures and "There Is More To This world," (Retropolis) back in the set after a two year absence. From the last release, Unfold The Future, they have taken the ever present "The Truth Will Set You Free," "Silent Inferno" and the surprise, "Devil's Playground," which contains a guitar and drums jam session to fill in the part of horns (as heard on the studio album). Moreover another jam session was performed by Jonas Reingold, his bass guitar very much involved and giving the fans a great deal of fun. The real surprise of the gig was the unplugged section featuring the guitars of Stolt, Froberg and Gildenlow, who were very good at playing difficult arrangements of old songs, sometimes in a folk-country style as with "Ghost Of Red Cloud." Final Encore: "The Flower King." A last question remains: why didn't they play "Stardust We Are" or "Garden Of Dreams?"