Archive for March, 2022

2022 world tour opens in Buenos Aires

a-ha in Buenos Aires, 25 March
(Screenshots from YouTube videos posted by Martin F)

a-ha were finally back on stage last night, two years after the pandemic brought the Hunting High and Low tour to a temporary halt.

The 2022 tour kicked off at a sold-out Movistar Arena in Buenos Aires, Argentina – the same city where they also opened their world tours in 2010 and 2015.

Morten in Buenos Aires
(Screenshot from YouTube)

“We’ve been waiting a long time to be back, I think it’s seven years since we were in Argentina. Thank you so much for bringing us back here. It’s been two years since we were on the road together and we all know what happened in between. So we might be a bit rusty. Forgive us for that”, Magne told the audience after the first few songs.

Although the first half of the show remained the Hunting High and Low album in its entirety, the running order of the songs had been switched around this time, starting with “Train of Thought” instead of “Take On Me” and saving the three big hits for the end of the album set.

The second half of the show included the world premiere of two new songs from the upcoming a-ha album True North, which is now set to be released in October. They are called “Forest For The Trees” (by Paul) and “You Have What It Takes” (by Magne). Paul has posted the lyrics to “Forest For The Trees” on Facebook.

In total the setlist included 18 songs, which is two songs less than the tour of Europe/Russia/Dubai in 2019-20, but the same length as South Africa, Australia (indoors) and New Zealand (indoors), and three songs more than the outdoors “Day On The Green” shows in 2020.

Magne in Buenos Aires
(Screenshot from YouTube)

One band member was notably absent last night; keyboardist and musical director Erik Ljunggren, who had become ill with Covid. Magne explained to the audience:

“We even lost a musician the day we arrived, to Covid. So he’s in isolation in the hotel. I guess you could see it as an invisible keyboard player over there. So we had to work all week to try to augment the show, to give you the best possible show we could under the circumstances.”

There was no large video screen used as stage backdrop, but instead the same basic light rig that was used on the tour outside of Europe in 2020. This could perhaps mean the video screen will only appear on the upcoming European tour.

Support band in Buenos Aires was local duo Desierto y Agua.

Paul in Buenos Aires
(Screenshot from YouTube)

 
The setlist
(YouTube videos by Martin F)
1. Train of Thought
2. The Blue Sky
3. Living a Boy’s Adventure Tale
4. And You Tell Me
5. Love is Reason
6. I Dream Myself Alive
7. Here I Stand and Face the Rain
8. Hunting High and Low
9. The Sun Always Shines on TV
10. Take On Me
– – – – – – – – – – – –
11. Sycamore Leaves
12. Forest For The Trees
13. You Have What It Takes
14. The Swing Of Things
15. Crying In The Rain
– – – – – – – – – – – –
16. Scoundrel Days
17. I’ve Been Losing You
18. The Living Daylights

 
Thanks to all fans in Argentina who has shared pictures and videos from the concert in Buenos Aires!

The tour continues at SND Arena in Asunción, Paraguay tomorrow, where the local band Deliverans will be supporting. On Wednesday they are playing at Movistar Arena in Santiago, Chile with The Cruel Visions supporting.

For the latest tour updates, follow me on Twitter.

a-ha: The Movie – new release dates

German cover art

a-ha: The Movie is released on Blu-ray and DVD in Germany today. It is the third country to get a home video release of the film, following the Norwegian Blu-ray and the Polish Blu-ray and DVD released in December last year. All editions seem to include deleted scenes as bonus features.

Overseas a-ha: The Movie is set to open in North American theaters on April 8th, including in New York, Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale, New Orleans, Buffalo, Cincinnati and Vancouver. In the following weeks there will also be screenings in Washington, Chicago, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Denver, Seattle and other cities. A full list of where you can see it is available on the movie’s official website.

After a limited run in theaters, an American Blu-ray and DVD release will then follow on May 10th.

In the Netherlands the movie is set to premiere in theaters on 28 April, followed by Japan on 20 May and finally the UK on 27 May.

Dates added in Nice, Scarborough and Cardiff

The 2022 a-ha tour just keeps growing and growing. Now 47 dates in total.

These three outdoor shows are the latest to be added:

29 June: Théâtre de Verdure, Nice, France
03 July: Scarborough Open Air Theatre, Scarborough, UK
05 July: Cardiff Castle, Cardiff, UK

Tickets go on sale Friday 25 March at 9am, while subscribers to the official a-ha mailing list will get access to presale details today.

a-ha coming to Barcelona

a-ha will be playing at the Festival Jardins Pedralbes in Barcelona, Spain on 27 June, the official site announced today.

This will be the first a-ha concert in Spain since 2010.

2022 marks the 10th edition of the popular Festival Jardins Pedralbes, which is held during the months of June and July in the gardens of the Royal Palace of Pedralbes. Other acts confirmed for this year include Simply Red, Patti Smith, Tom Jones and Crowded House.

Tickets will be available on 18 March at 10am CET.

New date in California

A fifth a-ha concert has been added in Paul’s home state of California:

29 July 2022: Oxbow RiverStage, Napa, USA

Concert ad

Oxbow RiverStage is an outdoor venue, opened in 2019, with a capacity of 4,000 people. It is located in the city of Napa (pop. 80,000) in the San Francisco Bay Area. The last time a-ha performed in the Bay Area was in 1986, when they played in Concord.

There will be a presale happening on March 17th through Ticketmaster, while the public sale starts the following day.

Update 16/3: The date was originally announced as 30 July, but has since been corrected to be 29 July instead.

Stavernfestivalen added

The a-ha ad uses the festival’s own font

a-ha will headline Stavernfestivalen near Larvik, Norway in July, the official site has announced today.

The festival is held from 7-9 July at Larvik Golf Arena, located between the towns of Stavern and Larvik, but the exact date for the a-ha concert has not been revealed yet. Other acts confirmed for the festival include Cardi B, Major Lazer and The Kid Laroi.

Morten played at Stavernfestivalen as part of his Brother solo tour in 2014, but this will be the first ever a-ha concert in the area of Stavern and Larvik, which has a combined population of around 54,000 people.

The number of a-ha concerts scheduled for this year is now 42.

Powered by WordPress