They Built This City On Rock ‘N' Roll

A One-Time Insider Revisits Gothenburg To Find That Sweden’s Port City Is Still Every Bit The Ultra-Cool Alternative Musical Paradise It Used To Be.

I’m in the foyer of the Concert Hall at Gothenburg’s grandest square, Götaplatsen, which is where the City Theatre and the Art Museum also stand—imposing structures framing the square on three sides. The evening’s philharmonic concert over, now commences a lounge-style show where two DJs remix the just concluded performance, while music aficionados tank up on wine. Soon the sampled symphonic orchestra resembles the soundtrack of a sci-fi film.

From there, I walk down the main boulevard, Kungsportsavenyn (often simply called ‘The Avenue’), and my feet start tapping to the music from bars and cafés that are bursting at their seams. The local edition of Hard Rock Café (Kungsportsavenyn 10, with two dance-floors) is competing with neighbouring heavier metal-leaning Rockbaren (Lorensbergsgatan 7), while youngsters sing in the street and a busker plays the saxophone in a park. I meet a few friends at Unity Jazz (Kyrkogatan 13) where entry’s free. A jazz trio is playing and we share a bottle of wine. When the red gunk is over, we pop around the corner to Sticky Fingers (Kaserntorget 7), a quintessential club with black-painted interiors, and catch the end of a groovy rock performance.