Nestor
- Rock Metal Machine
- 5 days ago
- 6 min read
Artists: Nestor, Velveteen Queen
Venue: Liseberg, Gothenburg
Date: 6th September 2025
"In a nutshell, Nestor were brilliant, and if you haven’t gotten on board yet, go see them play… trust me, you won’t regret it!"
I thought my days of outdoor gigs were largely behind me – hey, I was there for every freezing cold, sopping wet minute of the Deep Purple reunion show at Knebworth in June 1985! – but when the opportunity to see one of the hottest “new” Melodic Rock acts currently doing the rounds play their final gig of the summer arose, it was too good a chance to miss. So, Ryanair flights and a suitably close hotel duly booked, my better half (guess who her favourite band is at the moment) and I headed to Sweden’s second largest city, Gothenburg, to soak up the sights and some much-needed Scandinavian culture.
Liseberg is not your normal “stage in the middle of a muddy field with facilities medieval folk would deem primitive” setup, no sir, far from it! It is one of Scandinavia’s most visited theme parks (current estimates are north of three million visitors per annum), but what makes it really attractive is that it’s just fifteen minutes’ walk from the centre of town! And, with its own purpose-built (and visually impressive) enclosed staging area literally a stone’s throw from the main entrance, you start to think “If Carlsberg did Rock shows…” So, gig perch (stage centre, about a third of the way back) suitably located and claimed, we settled down in the last of the evening sunshine to await what even I admit, was one of the most anticipated shows I’ve seen this year…
About an hour from dusk, the stage filled with black smoke (for a second I thought the backline had caught fire!), things kicking off with a bang at the arrival of local heroes Velveteen Queen. Not a band I’ve paid too much attention to before I must admit, but that’s likely to change on the strength of tonight’s performance. They were brash, they were loud and on point, and if a mixture of Mötley Crüe, Hanoi Rocks, Aerosmith and Velvet Revolver (to name but four) tickles those taste buds, they are most definitely for you!
Kicking off with a wail of sirens they launched full tilt into the raucous ‘Liar’, frontman Samuel Nilsson (the words “brick” and “shithouse” sprang to mind) proving to be an obvious focal point. With a set, not surprisingly, drawing heavily from their debut album ‘Consequence Of The City’, they gave no quarter and asked for none in return, whipping the small (but by then steadily growing) crowd into a bit of a fervour. The visceral ‘Bad Reputation’ and swaggering ‘Last Sensation’ were both memorable early highlights, the low slung cool of guitarists Lukas Axx and Noah Mardh driving up the raunchy sleaze factor quite nicely.
‘The Greater Good’ (the Japanese bonus track from the debut) and ‘Try’ both got their debut live airing in the set, and by the time they hit ‘Barrel Of A Gun’ they were flying. Saving the best until the end though, their all too short set closed out in fine style with a snarling version of ‘Take Me Higher’. It was nice to see a support act get decent sound, lights and effects (including fire cannons) – the billowing black and red smoke at the end was a nice touch too – and enough room on the stage to show them at their best. A young band with a bright future ahead of them!
Setlist (contains spoilers)
Liar / Kenny’s Blues / Bad Reputation / The Greater Good / Last Sensation / Try / Barrel Of A Gun / Dreamer / Take Me Higher
After a relatively quick and painless set change, the video screens kicked in and a countdown to the arrival of Nestor began in earnest. Looked a bit like the old test card you used to get on TV (anyone who can remember them is probably at least as old as me!), except periodically you’d get graphic inserts and voiceovers introducing the band, which was great, unless like me, your command of the native tongue starts and ends with “tack”! But in fairness, it did seem to make the wait somehow that much shorter.
Finally, with dusk now slipping into darkness, the lights went up and a pair of uniformed military drummers accompanied by a bevy of dancers (all very attractive young ladies naturally) took to the stage, deftly keeping the beat to a suitably dramatic intro sequence. Visually it was quite a striking spectacle I’ll admit, although I did feel a pang of disappointment that they didn’t start with ‘The Law Of Jante’ like they did on ‘Teenage Rebel’. However, any misgivings were quickly banished when the intro reached its climax with the band arriving on stage and launching into a thumping, passion imbued rendition of ‘We Come Alive’… quite possibly the best set opener I’ve seen in an age! But that was just the start of it!
Nestor had made mention of the fact that this was their hundredth show since reforming on social media before the event (whether that still counted as they were forced to pull out of Unholy Summer Fest a couple of weeks earlier), and in the absence of Nestorfest this year, was going to be something of a “homecoming” gig. And boy did they go for it! Not only does he have a distinctive and powerfully emotive voice that fits their music perfectly, Tobias Gustavsson is also a great front man and orator, the crowd hanging on his every word and eating out of his hand during the between songs banter.
As the rousing opener reached its crescendo laden conclusion, they paused briefly to bask in the applause before heading straight into the unapologetic ‘Kids In A Ghost Town’, the autobiographical title track from their superb debut album! By the time they hit track three, ‘In The Name Of Rock ‘n’ Roll’ – their latest single and a real call to arms for fans – the lasers had struck up to make an already impressive light show look even better! I could go through the gig track by track – hell, if you want to see most of it for yourself, there’s a video of the Gröna Lund (Stockholm) show from a few weeks before on YouTube – but we’ll be here all day if I do that! So, in the interest of expediency and your sanity, I’ll just stick to some of the many highlights.
It was great to see ‘Tomorrow’ – the brooding power ballad from the debut – back in the set (it was missing in Stockholm), Tobias being joined on stage by chanteuse Lollo Gardtman for an emotional airing. ‘Victorious’ saw the dancers come back out, this time dressed as cheerleaders, whilst ‘Signed In Blood’ was memorable for a couple of reasons: firstly, the band really took it to the next level, and secondly, there were a couple of let’s say “happy” giant Swedish lads behind me singing along at the top of their voices (although their tuning was at best questionable)!
‘Perfect 10 (Eyes Like Demi Moore)’, ‘Last To Know’, Stone Cold Eyes’, ‘Unchain My Heart’ and ‘The One That Got Away’ all bristled with soaring emotions, and I should perhaps mention guitarist Jonny Wemmenstedt at this point who put in a majestic performance all evening, his shimmering riffs and scorching solos the perfect muse to Gustavsson’s epically dramatic vocal forays. With the set winding to a searing conclusion, we got ‘On The Run’, ‘Teenage Rebel’ and ‘1989’ in quick succession, the latter ending the show in an explosive display of fireworks! Finally, at the insistence of the crowd the band returned triumphantly with the utterly compelling ‘It Ain’t Me’, a very fitting end to a truly unforgettable evening.
Most Melodic Rock bands who aren’t Def Leppard would kill to put on a show like this in the UK, and at less than forty quid for the two of us – that’s entry to the park and the gig itself by the way – it certainly raises questions about the spiralling costs of shows back home! In a nutshell, Nestor were brilliant, and if you haven’t gotten on board yet, go see them play… trust me, you won’t regret it!
Setlist (contains spoilers)
We Come Alive / Kids In A Ghost Town / In The Name Of Rock ‘n’ Roll / Perfect 10 (Eyes Like Demi Moore) / The One That Got Away / Tomorrow / Last To Know / Signed In Blood / Unchain My Heart / Stone Cold Eyes / Victorious / Caroline / Firesign / On The Run / Teenage Rebel / 1989
Encore: It Ain’t Me
Gallery: All photos © Karin Celander (used with kind permission)
Review: Dave Cockett
Photos: Karin Celander
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