Thomas Stenström live review: personal, unfiltered and proudly imperfect
Thomas Stenström has become one of Sweden’s most recognisable singer-songwriters, combining contemporary Swedish pop with a distinctly personal and autobiographical style. The Uddevalla-born artist broke through with “Slå mig hårt i ansiktet” and has since built a substantial catalogue of emotional and often nostalgic songs, including “Andas in andas ut”, “Forever Young” and “Ser du månen där du är ikväll? (Tillsammans igen)”, his Swedish adaptation of the traditional “Auld Lang Syne”. His 2023 album Superlativ 97 reached number one in Sweden, while “Leva för alltid” became Sweden’s official song for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
His music is rooted more in the Swedish singer-songwriter tradition than in rock, but there is an appealing roughness to Stenström’s live persona that occasionally suggests something closer to the attitude of 1990s Britpop. That made the music playing as the audience gathered at Liseberg’s main stage, Stora Scenen, particularly fitting: Oasis’ “Some Might Say”, followed later by The Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony”.
Whether that was deliberate or not, it provided an interesting backdrop to an evening with an artist whose style and attitude occasionally bring the Gallagher brothers to mind, even if his music has considerably less in common with Oasis than the stage persona might suggest.
A Britpop connection, but not quite a musical one
There are certainly some parallels between Stenström and the Britpop generation. The loose, slightly scruffy cool, the sense of coming from somewhere ordinary and turning that background into part of the mythology, and even some of the swagger can feel familiar. And given Oasis’ own debt to The Stone Roses and Ian Brown, the comparison has an obvious lineage.
Musically, however, the connection is much weaker. Early Oasis was fundamentally loud, ragged rock music that happened to appeal to pop audiences looking for something with more substance than the boy bands and bubblegum pop dominating the charts at the time. Stenström is considerably less interested in that rock’n’roll nerve. His songs are much closer to the Swedish singer-songwriter tradition, with pop arrangements built around personal stories and memories.
That distinction became increasingly obvious as the concert unfolded, even if Stenström’s stage presence occasionally suggested that he might have enjoyed growing up in the same musical universe as the Gallaghers.
Live band
Thomas Stenström was backed by a five-piece live band, featuring two guitarists, a bassist, a drummer and a keyboardist.
A huge crowd and a deliberately slow build
There was no question about the scale of Stenström’s following. After playing two consecutive nights at Gröna Lund in Stockholm earlier in the summer, he brought the show to Gothenburg for two nights at Liseberg’s Stora Scenen on 20 and 21 August. CrowdSnapper attended the Thursday show on 20 August, although only the first part of the concert.
The concert was scheduled to begin at 20:00, but with people still streaming into the park, the start was pushed back by ten minutes. A few minutes before the show, smoke began slowly filling the stage, building an increasingly expectant atmosphere. When Stenström eventually appeared, he was wearing a beige trench coat, white shirt, loose black suit trousers and a fisherman’s hat pulled low over his face. He stood at the front of the stage with his head bowed as the intro played, making the audience wait a little longer before finally looking up with a huge smile. He took in the enormous crowd, threw the hat into the audience and launched into “Himlen över city”.
The entrance set the tone for a performance that was as much about Stenström’s personality as the songs themselves. After the opening numbers, he spoke about how happy he was to be there, describing himself as “just a little guy from Uddevalla” before thanking the audience and Gothenburg. Throughout the evening, those personal stories and memories became an important part of the performance.
Harmonica, tangled cables and old-school rock-star moves
“Lång väg till toppen” brought out the harmonica, an instrument that would return several times during the concert. At the same time, Stenström managed to wrap a considerable amount of microphone cable around himself as he moved around the stage. He eventually ventured onto the extended platform, stood at its furthest point and swung the microphone around by its cable in a distinctly old-school rock-star gesture.
It was a good illustration of the balance between polish and spontaneity that characterised the show. Stenström does not seem particularly interested in technical perfection. There were moments when the singing sounded slightly sour, and the harmonica was not always perfectly in tune either, but the rough edges also made the performance feel more personal. Rather than smoothing out every imperfection, he seemed willing to let them remain part of the experience. That approach fits his songwriting. There is little sense that Stenström is trying to present an idealised version of himself. The stories are personal, the language is often blunt and the nostalgia can be surprisingly raw.
“The only place I can be myself”
The between-song conversations became increasingly personal as the concert went on. Stenström said that the only place where he felt he could truly be himself was “on this bloody stage” (på den här jävla scenen), and his behaviour suggested that the filters were indeed off. His speeches were often nostalgic and sometimes unexpectedly revealing, with enough swearing to make the description of a sailor seem conservative.
One of the stories concerned Bruce Springsteen. Stenström talked about regretting that he had not gone to see Springsteen with his mother when he was a child, a regret that eventually led into “Väntar på en solig dag”, his Swedish-language cover of Springsteen’s “Waitin’ on a Sunny Day”. The cover has apparently received the approval of “The Boss” himself.
The story also fitted neatly into one of the main themes of the evening: Stenström’s relationship with his own past.
From Uddevalla to Gothenburg
Stenström spoke at length about growing up in Uddevalla and about what Gothenburg represented to him as a child. Although the two cities are not particularly far apart, he described the journey as feeling much greater when he was young. Gothenburg was almost a mirage, a place that seemed to represent a larger world just beyond reach.
That led into “Kaprifol”, introduced as a song about dreaming of getting away. The harmonica returned, and towards the end the guitarists joined in with backing vocals, giving the song a broad and slightly grandiose singalong quality that suited the setting.
The song also highlighted one of Stenström’s strengths as a songwriter. His sense of place is rarely just geographical. Uddevalla, Gothenburg and the other locations that appear in his songs often function as emotional landmarks, tied to childhood, ambition and the feeling of wanting to become someone else.
When Liseberg became a dive bar
After “Kaprifol”, the trench coat came off. Stenström remained in his white shirt, lit a cigarette and headed out into the audience for “Bäst här inne”.
The song’s lyrics are full of profanity, references to the urinal at the town’s only bar and reminders that we are all going to die. With a cigarette in his hand and a huge amusement park around him, Stenström somehow managed to turn Liseberg into his own slightly grimy local watering hole.
It was also one of the moments when his particular brand of authenticity worked best. There was nothing especially polished or glamorous about the scene, but it felt entirely consistent with the person he had presented through his stories and songs. The attitude might occasionally recall Britpop, but the world he describes is much more rooted in Swedish everyday life.
“Leva för alltid” and the football question
Around 21:00, I left the concert. On the way out, I caught a lengthy introduction to “Leva för alltid”, Stenström’s official song for Sweden’s 2026 FIFA World Cup campaign. It was clear that the song carried considerable emotional weight for him, both because of the honour of being chosen and because of the criticism it had received.
The performance itself was extended and echoed around the amusement park. Given the earlier Oasis references, the title inevitably makes it difficult not to think of “Live Forever”. Beyond the titles, however, the comparison does not really go anywhere. Neither song feels particularly football-oriented, although it is difficult to see what some listeners expected from a football song by Thomas Stenström. He is hardly known for writing terrace chants.
“Leva för alltid” is much more consistent with his established style: earnest, personal and emotionally direct. Whether that is what people wanted from a World Cup song is another question, but it is certainly recognisable as a Thomas Stenström song.
The hits were waiting at the end
There was one significant caveat to experiencing only the first part of the concert. What initially felt like a rather long introduction turned out to be less than half of the full set. Stenström continued until approximately 22:15, and many of his biggest songs were deliberately saved for the latter part of the evening.
That meant that “Slå mig hårt i ansiktet”, “Ser du månen där du är ikväll? (Tillsammans igen)”, “Spring baby spring”, “Forever Young” and “Andas in andas ut” all arrived after I had left.
For a casual listener, the opening stretch was therefore arguably longer than necessary. Stenström certainly has no shortage of material, though, and the decision makes more sense when considering that he was playing two consecutive nights at Liseberg. The setlist for the second night was substantially changed, allowing dedicated fans who attended both concerts to hear a considerable number of deeper cuts rather than essentially getting the same two-hour show twice.
For those fans, that must have been something of a Christmas in August. For someone whose knowledge of Stenström begins and ends with his biggest songs, however, there is an argument that arriving around 21:00 would have been enough. That was when “Leva för alltid” came up, and it felt as though the strongest cards in the set were only beginning to be played.
Thomas Stenström live at Liseberg: worth the wait?
Thomas Stenström’s 20 August performance at Liseberg was ultimately less about flawless execution than about connection. His strongest asset is his willingness to let the audience into his world. The Uddevalla childhood, the regrets, the memories, the profanity, the harmonica, the cigarette, the tangled microphone cable and the occasional rough note all formed part of the same picture.
It is easy to see why he has become such a major figure in Swedish pop. There is a refreshing lack of polish for polish’s sake, and Stenström does not appear particularly interested in pretending that life is tidier than it really is. His music may sit closer to Swedish pop and the singer-songwriter tradition than to the rockier world suggested by Oasis and The Verve, but his attitude has enough edge to make the comparison understandable.
The main question is pacing. For fans, a set stretching beyond two hours and changing substantially from one night to the next is a generous proposition. For newcomers, the slow build means that patience is required before the biggest songs arrive.
Nevertheless, there is something appealing about an artist who has enough songs, stories and memories to fill a night at Liseberg without immediately rushing towards the hits. During the first part of the 20 August show, Stenström was at his most interesting when he stopped trying to be a conventional pop star and simply became the slightly scruffy, foul-mouthed and nostalgic singer from Uddevalla who somehow ended up in front of a huge crowd in Gothenburg.
That, more than any Britpop comparison, is what makes Thomas Stenström distinctly his own.
Setlist
- Himlen över city
- Vill du ha mig?
- Allt jag har
- Lång väg till toppen
- Hjälp!
- Väntar på en solig dag (Swedish cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Waitin’ on a Sunny Day”)
- Kaprifol
- Bäst här inne
- Leva för alltid
- Felicia
- Nollpunkt
- Slå mig hårt i ansiktet
- Ser du månen där du är ikväll? (Tillsammans igen) (Swedish adaptation of the traditional song “Auld Lang Syne”)
- Spring baby spring
- Göteborg
- Forever Young
- Andas in andas ut
- Hej hallå!
- Nätterna
This show was shot with
Camera bodies
- Sony a7 IIIClose-ups, long-range shots
- Sony a7R IIWide-angle shots
Camera lenses
- Samyang 35-150mm f2–2.8Close-ups, long-range shots
- Tamron 16-30mm f2.8Wide-angle shots
Concert photo gallery
