We had a great gig at Slottstallarna in Växjö with great support from our fans and friends.

We played the original set for 40+ minutes including the Beyoncé cover Irreplaceable - the crowd demanded an encore and we were pleased to oblige with a heavy performance of the soon to be smash-hit Mindset

Växjö, thank you so much for a great experience!

First off I want to thank those of you who showed up for the gig. The indoor festival venue was kind of tricky to find, (being, as it was, an outdoor festival) resulting in a frustrated flow of text messages and missed calls on the cell during and after the show. In any case, we had a real blast and felt that we really managed to represent ourselves well on the biggest festival in Sweden.

Besides yours truly, a bunch of other bands played too of course. I had the pleasure of attending some good gigs, especially The Wildhearts and Faith No More. I first saw Faith back in 1998 on their very last tour when they visited the Lollipop Festival in Stockholm. That gig was not very good, the band looking painfully tired of touring, lacking the energy in the performance and output. This time was a lot different. It was one of the best live shows I’ve seen. I was amazed at how good a frontman Mike Patton really is, with his mezmerizing gaze and wild bursts of energy, frantically waving a white cane in the air whilst switching back and forth between opera-like vocals and growling. If you get a chance to see them on their reunion tour, regardless of whether you’ve heard them before or not, take it!

The big disappointment at this festival was, sadly, Chris Cornell. Oh, how far the mighty have fallen… I still don’t get why the f*** he decided to throw his career away and start experimenting with Timbaland. Something is really very wrong. The band backing him isn’t the best either, despite the fact that they’re all skilled musicians. There’s just very little chemistry on stage. The magical moments are sparse, but at least they’re there during “Spoonman” and “Black Hole Sun”, and Chris is definitely lucky he’s got that voice of his, otherwise I’m sure I would have left during the middle part of the show where he only served new crap and some boring Audioslave songs.

Anyhow, all in all this was one of the best festivals I’ve had the pleasure of attending. The last night after the last show most of the bands and artists gathered in the backstage area for a few beers and socializing. So Morty and I didn’t get to bed until about 5.30 in the morning - some nights you just don’t want to end! It was a good thing we had to drive back to Stockholm in the morning, thus preventing me to devour excessive amounts of alcohol and managing to avoid hangover altogether.

So, what’s next? Some well deserved time off, maybe some rehearsing and perhaps I will get into the mood of songwriting again. Now I’m off for an afternoon beer in the sun. Cheerio!

Thursday’s the day when The Genuine Fakes enter the Orion stage at the Peace & Love Festival in Borlänge. 6.30 pm is the time. Check out the calendar for more information.

That’s right folks, The Genuine Fakes will grace the Peace and Love festival in Borlänge, Sweden with a visit on June 25. This means they’ll be joining the fine lineup of greats such as Chris Cornell, Faith No More, Mötley Crüe and Monster Magnet, not to mention Morty Fake’s favorite band - The Wildhearts.

The Genuine Fakes have the chance to open up for Deportees at Debaser in Stockholm. If you’re in Sweden you can vote by means of sms for the small cost of 2 SEK. Just send the message OA THEGE to number 72500 to vote. Thanks for your help!

Next week The Genuine Fakes are doing a few gigs in Uppsala and Gothenburg. A couple more are soon to be confirmed.

You’ve got some cool gigs to look forward to in the coming week. Tuesday and Wednesday will see the dawn of the new lineup! For live gigs the Fakes have brought in an extra hand on keyboards. That hand belongs to Tommy Fake, who is also playing with the great band chief. Check out Tour for more details.

Some more gigs have been booked. Also, the Fakes are hitting the studio in March to lay down some new tracks. Before long they’ll have a new free websingle to offer you.