Millencolin’s Guide To Sweden For Music Fans
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of famous musicians from Sweden? Is it ABBA? The Hives? Ace of Base? There’s a bunch to choose from, each exhibiting all that’s great about Sweden and its colourful music scene. If you’re planning on visiting the fare shores of Scandinavia, you’d be remiss if you didn’t check out all that the thriving Swedish music scene has to offer, so we thought we’d call in an expert to tell you all about it.
Swedish punk rock pioneers Millencolin are just about to head off on a mammoth tour across Australia in support of their latest record True Brew. We asked lead guitarist Mathias Färm for his top tips for music fans when visiting Sweden, and he delivered tenfold.
#1 Stockholm
The first thing you should do is head to Stockholm. That’s where everything is happening in a way – where all the big shows are. I currently live two hours from Stockholm and because I’m touring a lot, I don’t really go to head into the city and do stuff, but as a music tourist you need to go to Stockholm.
#2 The ABBA Museum
As an Australian, you should really go to the ABBA Museum. It’s a cool museum and I know all Australian people love ABBA!
#3 Kafé 44
There’s also a really cool classic punk rock venue called Kafé 44. We played our first shows in Stockholm at this place and they have a lot of good punk rock. It’s very, very underground.
#4 Sound Pollution
You should also try to check out some really good record stores – there’s one called Sound Pollution that’s in the old part of Stockholm. It’s has nice surroundings and is a great place to go to.
#5 Gröna Lund
There’s a big amusement park called Gröna Lund, it’s actually on an island in the middle of Stockholm. They have this big stage and every year they have these huge music shows – we’re actually going to play there this summer! Each summer they have about 20 big shows and you can buy a ticket for all the shows for around just $30AUD. It’s one or two shows a week.
#6 Örebro
You should also go and visit our home town of Örebro. It’s a really cool town. We’ve got a nice castle in the middle of the city and we have some good bars, too. Our old manager, the guy who used to work at Burning Heart Records, has his own beer café here. There’s some good music stuff going on here too and we got a brand new, really nice skate park that’s located in the middle of the city.
#7 Gothenburg
Maybe you should go to Gothenburg, too. They have exactly the same thing as in Stockholm – this big amusement park called Liserberg that’s in the middle of the city – and they actually copied the whole punk thing from Stockholm, so they have shows there too. It’s basically the same thing but a much bigger amusement park. It’s the biggest in Northern Europe.
#8 Bråvalla Festival
In the summer we have this huge music festival in Norrköping, a festival called Bråvalla Festival. It’s the biggest music festival in Sweden and probably Scandinavia. It has around 60,000 people and it goes on for three days. It’s a very modern festival. Back in the day we had a lot of three day music festivals in Sweden where you mainly brought your tent to the festival and camped, but this festival is quite different as you can camp there but you can also rent really nice cabins. It’s a little modern – they even have places where you can charge your phone and use the internet.
Millencolin kick off their Aussie tour at the Metropolis in Fremantle on April 26, with shows across Adelaide, Sydney, Coolangatta, Brisbane and Melbourne to follow. For more info on the tour and to check out their latest album True Brew, head here.
(Lead image: Bravalla Festival/Facebook)
Thinking of heading to Sweden? Check out Qantas flights to Europe here.
