ABBA HITS BRING ON NOSTALGIC GOLD

the disco pop music of the group was kept alive onstage by tribute band Arrival from Sweden, which was in town for a two-night concert.

Since its formation in 1995 the Scandinavian outfit has toured over 60 nations to provide the live Abba experience.

Look-alikes of the original Awesome Foursome, Vicky Zetterberg, Jenny Gustafsson, Jonas Karlsson and Rolf Ivraeus took to the stage and got the crowd excited

with

and were backed by a five-piece band, made up of two female backup singers, a drummer, a saxophonist who also played the keyboards and original Abba bassist Mike Watson.

Gustafsson, who sang Agnetha’s parts, and Zetterberg, who carried Anni-Frid’s sections, did a splendid job in the vocal department.The blonde Gustafsson was especially good on the solo rendition of

But it was also satisfying to hear the vocal harmonies by the duo and their backup singers, which was part of the Abba trademark.

There was much foot-tapping, headbopping and sing-a-long sessions as the band tore through the two-hour concert, dubbed at a rapid pace. Due to the enormous repertoire of the group that had a decade-long career beginning in the early 1970s, some of the performances consisted of medleys.

Although the first half of the show was a little shaky, the band quickly got its groove and by the end of the first half, it got the crowd up on their feet and dancing away with its rendition of and

The post-intermission set saw the band in top form to the delight of all in attendance. At the end of the musicians even had an instrumental jam session with a strong progressive rock feel (it was supposed to be the 1970s after all).

Overall, Arrival from Sweden performed over 25 tracks that included

and

Fernando,

Organised by AC Music Entertainment, the concert was certainly an enjoyable night and a memorable trip down memory lane.

There was plenty of dancing once more as audience members sashayed down to the front to boogie to the encore number, a rousing earworm that was still playing in my head way after the concert had ended.