In the previous post, I asked everyone to guess whose eyes are featured in the provided picture. I have to give props to Tony for guessing that one of those pairs of eyes belonged to Kylie Minogue. That was by far the most original guess. ;)

Without totally giving it away, they’re all part of the same band. William and I both won backstage passes to a meet and greet where we got to have photos taken and get things autographed.

Click on the title of this post or Read More below to find out who the eyes belong to — if you don’t already recognize them from the picture below — and see the photos and videos from the event!

Those four pairs of eyes belong to Ace.of.Base. (If you’re wondering why there are dots in between the words of the band’s name, there’s a special note about that at the end of this post.)

The Swedish band toured across Canada, visiting Vancouver, Edmonton, Montreal and finally Toronto. In Toronto, they were performing at the beer festival. As some of you know, I’m not a beer drinker, but I am an Ace of Base fan, so festival theme aside, there was no way I wasn’t going to this.

Not only did William and I get to go, but we also won backstage passes to meet the band, which was a great opportunity to get photos and autographs. I would have liked more time with them — like I had in September of last year, when they came to perform at a private amfAR event — but it was nice to see them again. Julia remembered me, too. The rest of them did once I showed them a picture from last year that they all signed for me.

Click/tap on the photos to enlarge:

I was a little concerned before the show started because there was only a handful of people in front of the stage for the opening act. I was envisioning a crowd of just the fans that showed up for the meet and greet, with a few others, and the rest of the festival attendees would be roaming around, sampling beer all night.

In all other cities, I saw (via YouTube) huge, enthusiastic crowds at their concerts. I didn’t want Toronto to be the dud.

Fortunately, that was just a symptom of the opening act. People started gathering in front of the stage, closer to showtime. And then as soon as the music started playing, (they started with The Sign), people swarmed around the stage.

It was a great show! Lots of fun and good energy from the band and the crowd. People were dancing, and a surprising amount of people knew the words to the newer songs. Not bad for a band who’s only been releasing singles in Europe, Australia and Japan for the past 11 years.

Here’s a collection of the photos from the meet and greet, as well as some stills from the concert!

Julia decided to watch the opening band playing before the meet and greet officially started. Everyone let her be for a few minutes before coming up to her and saying hi. I was able to get a few moments with her and have my photo autographed. Just like the first time I met her, Julia was warm and sincere — great person to be around. The upper-left photo is the moment she remembered who I was. :)

Group Shot!

Special Note:

Why the dots in Ace.of.Base? Only two out of the four people who were part of the original band of Ace of Base (sans dots) are in the group. Linn left by choice in 2007 and Jenny’s contract was cancelled due to complicated circumstances. Fortunately, we don’t live in a Jenny-deprived world. She released a solo album and it’s pretty amazing, if you ask me.

While there was (and still is for some) an adjustment period that fans who chose to continue to follow Ace.of.Base after the change-up, I’ve more or less come to terms with the way things are. While it’s still kind of funny hearing Julia and Clara singing classic AOB songs, they’ve given us their best performance yet right here in Toronto. As for the songs off the album with Julia and Clara, The Golden Ratio, they were also the best live versions I’ve heard so far.

Concert Videos!

Check out the videos from the concert! William was amazing and held the camera up — emphasis: the camera was held by his two hands — for each song.

Here are videos of all of the AoB songs performed that night, in the order they were performed. You can choose the ones you’d like to watch below:

The Sign
Life is a Flower
Vision in Blue
Lucky Love
Happy Nation
Black Sea
Cruel Summer
Golden Ratio
Wheel of Fortune
All That She Wants
Don’t Turn Around
Blah Blah Blah on the radio
Never Gonna Say I’m Sorry
Beautiful Life

Don’t forget to comment, and thank William for being there, taking all the photos and videos while I frolicked with Ace-list celebrities. ;)