Review: Nestor – Live At Gothenburg Film Studios

Napalm Records – August 14^th, 2026

Reviewer – Jason Hopper

If I could point to one band as the best new band of this decade, it is without a doubt Nestor.  They released an all-time classic with their debut ‘Kids In A Ghost Town‘ (review here) and the excellent follow up ‘Teenage Rebel‘ (review here). Now both are presented in a live format recorded at Gothenburg Film Studios. I was blessed to catch this band twice on the Monsters of Rock Cruise in 2023 and they were everything I hoped they would be. I was eager to see if the energy of their live concert could be captured in a recording.

I am happy to say that, for the most part, this album is as dynamic and powerful as their live performance. All the instruments are perfectly balanced and crisp sounding. Nothing here is muddled. The energy from the band to the crowd takes me back to the time I saw them and that fills me with a joy that can only be understood by people who shared the same experience.

If you’re reading this, then you surely know the songs so there’s no sense in reviewing those again. With that said, I do love when bands change songs up a bit in live settings. The live version of ‘Victorious’ has a different intro and ending that adds a choral of dancing cheerleaders spelling out part of the title in a chant and repeating the line “All for one victorious”. It energizes the song in a way that I prefer this live version over the studio recording. Absolutely fabulous.

The only detraction for me is the one thing I hate running into on live albums…the dreaded fades. Outside of the intro bleeding into ‘We Come Alive’, all of the songs fade in and fade out. I understand the modern reasoning. The audio will mostly be streamed and individual songs played in isolation sound better with fades. I’m an old school album guy and this pulls me right out of the live setting.

I also had the chance to check out the Blu-Ray.The visuals and lighting are fantastic, with the band and crowd having a blast. Of course, there are no fades here with the editing stitching the songs together seamlessly.

However, there are two issues with the Blu-Ray that are notable. First, the band is interviewed between groups of three songs. The interviews are fine, but if you’re playing this album to rock out to it, this kills the momentum. The interviews should have been a special feature. Second, some of my favorite songs from the band are omitted from the Blu-Ray (or at least the stream that I accessed). ‘Perfect 10’, ‘Last To Know’, ‘Caroline’, and ‘It Ain’t Me’ are not present. What gives? Blu-Rays can hold a tremendous amount of data, why omit songs in this format?  Decisions like this are nonsensical.

This band is so great that, despite some issues, I will be picking up this release in a few weeks.  For those who have never had the chance, this album is a great representation of what you would experience. I hope to one day catch them again. For now, I can close my eyes while listening to the album and allow the memories to come flowing back.

Track List:

1. Intro
2. We Come Alive
3. Kids In A Ghost Town
4. Stone Cold Eyes
5. Perfect 10
6. The One That Got Away
7. Last To Know
8. Unchain My Heart
9. Signed In Blood
10. Victorious
11. Caroline
12. Firesign
13. On The Run
14. Teenage Rebel
15. 1989
16. It Ain’t Me

Line-up:

Tobias Gustavsson – vocals
Jonny Wemmenstedt – guitar
Mattias Carlsson – drums
Marcus Åblad – bass
Martin Frejinger – keyboards

Web Links:

Official Website

Facebook

Instagram

Spotify

YouTube

Napalm Records