Allgemein, Concerts

Are you ready for Stone Sour Motherf******?

Thanks to Goodnews I got to witness Stone Sour for the very first time on Thursday night and I was quite excited since I didn’t know what to expect. As you might have noticed they are just a little more different to what I’ve been going to on a regular basis. But seriously who wouldn’t want to see a gig by the very talented Stone Sour?

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Stone Sour brought a very special guest with them The Pretty Reckless. I was super intrigued to see them live also for the first time. Those of you who watched Gossip Girl this might be very interesting for you. Remember Dan’s little Sister Jenny? Yup, that’s Taylor Momsen who is rocking out on stage. I gotta say the music is quite special but still I enjoyed the 45mins set. But I just don’t know if this dark sided girl is just an act since it seemed very over the top as if she tried to prove us that she really is into this music. But hey it might be just me.

Finally at 9.15 Stone Sour took the stage and played “Taipei Person/Allah Tea”. They lit up the Samsung Hall with golden Fireworks and an amazing light show. Stone Sour started like other bands finish! In the middle of the song Corey Taylor brought out a huge confetti gun and fired three times into the audience. The party started so he shouted:

Are you ready Motherf***ers?!

A low grunt was the response to that since 80% of the crowd were men. Which I gotta say was quite refreshing especially down in the restrooms. Finally us women could just walk in and the queue for the men’s toilet was huge 😉 Me and another woman had a quick laugh about that. During “Knievel has Landed” Corey Taylor showed his incredible talent for head banging or probably more spinning! I seriously cannot believe how fast he can turn his head around. Anyway I am incredibly fascinated by Corey Taylor. He has a beautiful voice, absolutely enjoys making music and to some he is even good-looking!
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Corey Taylor had the audience in his pocket from the minute he walked onto the stage. He asked us now: “Who here has seen us before?” A few people put their hands up and screamed. So he answered “Thank you for coming back and always supporting us. So who is seeing us for the first time?” Lots of hands went up including mine 🙂 “Thank you for coming out to see us. Let’s play some older songs”. “Made of Scars” and “Reborn” from their first album Come What(ever) May made a lot of fans happy. They moved on to the next album Audio Secrecy and played “Say You’ll Haunt me”, “30/30-150” and “Hesitate”


After a few songs I finally had time to look at the other members of the band and wow Josh Rand looks almost like Pitbull! 🙂 But this is not why he was so fascinating. Josh’s guitars changed for every song and all of them looked very special. They were neon yellow, neon pink with black dots or a deep red wine red. The drums played by Roy Mayorga were also very special since it had two bass drums and on it two eyes staring directly at you. I really really loved that! Unfortunately I didn’t see much of the other two members of the band Christian Martucci and Johny Chow since I had someone tall standing in front of me.
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On it went with the album House of Gold & Bones, Part 1 and “Tired”. Corey decided it was time to dance! Stone Sour played their longest title of the new record Hydrograd and one of my favourites of the night “Rose Red Violent Blue (This song is dumb & So am I)”. I’d really recommend you to have a look at the funny video on YouTube. “Do Me a Favour” from the record House of Gold & Bones, Part 2 was next and it got really heavy now with “Cold Reader” and “Get Inside” from their self-titled album. But we are some crazy Mothersf***ers and we deserved this. Lots of devil signs went up.
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My absolute favourite song “Song #3” came on – finally – and I was super happy 🙂 As I already mentioned in my New Music review of the Hydrograd record it is a classy rock song and it’s probably too soft for the most part of the audience but I really really love it. Again I want to mention how much I love Corey Taylor’s voice! It is pretty incredible and has the perfect raspy rough part that I really like. The softness continued with a ballade called “Through Glass”. I really recommend you to listen to this song if you are not into Metal you will really like this one. This shows how diverse this group is.

Unfortunately it was already time for them to leave the stage only to come back a few mins later to play “Gone Sovereign”. I really liked that song because it has a cool beat and people even started clapping their hands until it went into the heavy s**t again. “Absolute Zero” started and I expected Corey Taylor to take off his shirt. However it stayed on until the very end which was quite disappointing 😉 Instead Corey split the audience in four parts: Back, front, right and left side. Like a conductor he let us sing “Eh Eh Eh” and pointed his finger at the different parts of the audience. “Fabuless” made a perfect finish to a very different (for me) but amazing gig.
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Believe me next time Stone Sour is coming to Switzerland I will be back! But maybe Corey Taylor decides to reactivate his other band Slipknot and comes back with them.. Lots of Slipknot would be happy and I think I would even have a look at a Slipknot gig 😉 Until then I guess I have to train my neck for all that head banging! 😀
Have you been to a Stone Sour gig? Or do you have an opinion about the Pretty Reckless? I’d love to know more about your experiences so please share them below or on Kekoas Korner’s social media accounts Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

Check out my last gigs: Hoodie Allen, Jake Isaac, Marteria

 
 

Allgemein, Concerts

Huge party with Hoodie Allen

Hoodie Allen partied hard with his Swiss fans on a Tuesday night. It was the first time the American rapper came to Europe and he was blown away by the reception of his European/Swiss fans. Before the gig Hoodie himself stood by the merch table and sold his own T-shirts. Of course I had to say hi and got his signature onto my ticket.
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Goody Grace warmed up the crowd for Hoodie and he did quite a good job. However I was super annoyed by the people constantly chatting and disrespecting the artist. Seriously it was so loud I could barely hear him sing. From what I’ve heard though I can tell you guys that he is quite talented. He did two acoustic songs and a few party songs. Unfortunately I didn’t get his set list but please check this lovely lad out.


A little later Hoodie Allen took the stage with “Believe” and the people already went crazy. I gotta say that I was among the oldest people in the crowd. Hoodie attracted lots of teenies. With “Sushi” the Swiss audience could prove that they knew the lyrics inside out. “Fun” and “Fakin” were next and I was seriously amazed how good the crowd was.. I think Hoodie Allen was too. You could see how much fun he and his four musicians had on stage. He spoke a lot and told us how much he appreciated us coming out to see him since without us he’d still be in the garage at home.
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“Something Dangerous”, “Robot” and “Act my Age” followed. It was good fun and I wish I would have know a bit more songs but unfortunately I couldn’t really listen to the songs since I had so many gigs this week. “Small Town” seemed to be a crowd’s favourite and I get why. I loved the song as well. The fun continued with “Surprise Party” where balloons where thrown around and for the crew it really was a special day. It was the official tour photographers Birthday and of course we sang “Happy Birthday” to him. Hoodie Allen was really happy with the audience and asked us to choose between 3 songs. “Cake boy” and “Two Lips” got around the same amount of noise so he just played both.
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During “Cake Boy” they threw two cakes into the audience! I was like “Wait what?!” but the crowd seemed to love it. “Two Lips” was done acoustically and all the cell phone lights went up. It looked great! Hoodie addressed the people who were just dragged along and said you just need to know three words for the next song “Champagne and pools”. The gig continued with a brilliant drum solo and the song “Fame”. For “Heartbreak” Goody Grace came back on stage to sing/rap with Hoodie. “Know it all” and “No Faith” were next and I was still amazed how everyone seemed to know all the lyrics to every song! It made for a great atmosphere and I was so glad I came to witness this gig.
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Hoodie Allen said then you might know of a very talented musician called Ed Sheeran and we did a song together! Yesss! I finally was able to singalong to “All About It”. Back when it came out I played it constantly and it’s the reason why I came to this gig. “Ain’t Ready (for love)” was the last song before the encore. When Hoodie left the stage the audience started to shout “Hoodie, Hoodie, Hoodie” and after a minute he came back on. He asked the crowd to form a circle in the middle and I was like wait a minute I’ve heard that before… Oh right Marteria on Saturday. This was the baby version of Saturday’s mosh pit. It still was great fun and it looked like we were celebrating a huge party with Hoodie in the middle. The final song of the night was “No Interruption” and people started jumping and singing. It was a great finish to a brill gig!
Enjoyed the party as well? Share you story below or on Kekoas Korner’s social media accounts Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Check out my latest gigs: Jake Isaac, Marteria, Xavier Naidoo
Allgemein, Concerts

Jake Isaac and his garage gig at Papiersaal

Just Because brought the brilliant Jake Isaac back to Papiersaal on Sunday night. Around 200 people mostly female spent their evening with this talented musician and his band. To be honest with you I didn’t know many songs but it turned out to be an energetic gig nevertheless.


At 8 o’clock the support called These Your Children took the stage. The duo Joe and Beka were supported by a young drummer. The trio started their set with “Get up & go” and “Sing for you”. The next song “David” is a very sad ballade with an emotional topic. And then they asked us if it was okay if they covered a song. They came down to the audience and played a lovely acoustic version of Whitney Houston’s “Dance with Somebody”. “Set a fire” and “Real Love” are two very cool uptempo tracks and they made everyone dance and even sing! So all in all this was one of the best support acts I’ve seen this year!
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Around 9 Jake Isaac came on stage with a huge smile and played “Lonely are the brave”. He was supported by three other musicians who had a good time as well. The four of them immediately transported a very welcoming good vibe. After the song Jake said that he had four rules and everyone got serious. He laughed and said don’t worry it’s not that serious. So here are Jake’s four rules for his audience:

  1. Have fun
  2. Dance even if you can’t dance!
  3. Sing even if you don’t know the lyrics
  4. Most importantly: HAVE FUN! 🙂

After a huge laugh he started “Fool for you” and everyone clapped along. “One and Only” made me want to dance and if I didn’t have super sore muscles from the Marteria gig the day before I would have danced way more. I also looked around the audience and everyone really seemed to have fun which was wonderful to see. Next it was time to sing! During “Home” we were the backing choir and it sounded brilliantly. When he finished he had his thinking cap on and then suddenly decided to skip a song and go straight to “Still”. He told the musicians and they easily adapted. It really was lovely to see how much fun they had playing their musicians and performing for us. It felt like we were in their garage listening to friends playing music.
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And now the slow part began. “Waiting Here” and “You and I always” are two beautiful ballades where his amazing velvety voice came out in full force. A little bit more uptempo was the next song “Will you be” again. The slow part was over. During “War is our name” we were back singing “Ohhhhh” 🙂 He asked us then:

Do you remember rule No 2?

Someone shouted: Dance! And he said exactly! 🙂 So please feel free to let loose during the next song “I got you” and the people really let loose and danced even more. During the last song “Long Road” Jake Isaac asked his assistant to walk around the audience and the people who were dancing the best got a free record! How cool is that?! But obviously this was done because of the customs restrictions in Switzerland. Bring Merchandising in is impossible for small artists. The costs are just too high so they just don’t take any with them which is a pity! I hope that there will be a solution soon.
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Jake Isaac left the stage at 10 o’clock. When he came back he said that there was a 10pm curfew but if he doesn’t get really bad looks from the people in charge he will do one more song. Someone in the audience shouted 5! And he said well let’s do “Lose my Mind” and we’ll see. He sang the song without any microphone and just with his acoustic guitar. It really was a special moment and a wonderful finish to a beautiful gig on a Sunday Night.


What I love about those small gigs is that you get to talk to the artists afterwards and let me tell you he was super lovely. He gave everyone a hug and apologized for being sweaty. 🙂 He even complimented the three girls in the front row who sang every song. So so nice! TCY was also there to talk to everyone and gave out free hugs 😉 So guys if you haven’t listened to Jake Isaac or These Your Children please do so now. They are great musicians, lovely people and well worth supporting!
Enjoyed the gig as much as me? Share your story on InstagramFacebook, Twitter or leave a comment below.

Check out my latest gigs: Marteria, Xavier Naidoo, Mando Diao
Allgemein, Concerts

Ich bin ein Marteria Girl / I am a Marteria Girl

I go to concerts a lot – even more now since I started this blog. I knew that this concert would be special and just f****** amazing so I was excited since July after the Gurtenfestival gig. The review of his new record Roswell was one of my first blog posts because let’s face it he is one of my favourite artists.
I went to the venue early and luckily I made it to front row! This is the only place at the Marteria gig for me 🙂 The support act Kid Simius is Marteria’s buddy and bass player but it was just not for me.

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Pic by Denise Stocker

Finally at 8.50 the familiar sound of “Roswell” rang around Samsung Hall! The concert started and my excitement levels went through the roof. Everyone was already all in and many concerts don’t even reach that kind of atmosphere during the last songs. On it went with “Aliens”. We are all Aliens! And obviously Marteria addressed the seats on the balcony.

This is a Marteria concert. Nobody is sitting down. Everybody is standing up! All Hands!

His favourite sentence is: “Alle Hände!” and everyone complies. With “Endboss” he performed one of his earlier tracks which I only got to really love during this tour. My bad I know 🙂 When I say he performed it’s not quite accurate. Marteria has 3 background singers (one of which is pregnant and still gives her all on stage), 1 rap buddy Pete Boateng and four musicians playing various instruments on stage. With two new Roswell tracks “Scotty beam mich hoch” and “El Presidente” the show continued.
 


During “Bengalische Tiger” someone smuggled in a red pyro and lit it up in the back of the hall. It looked amazing however I understand that it is very dangerous! And another two of Marteria’s Roswell “Tauchstation” and “Blue Marlin” were next. They are slower but still full of energy and obviously ALLE HÄNDE were up high. Next we had to do the peace sign and the old “Skyline” of New York was shown on the screen.
 

For “Neue Nikes” Marteria always asks: “What shoes are you wearing tonight?!” and yes, of course there a few guys wearing Nikes and had to show them up high. During the whole song lots of Nikes were bouncing in the air. When the first chords of this next song started I knew that this concert is going by much to fast and I really really don’t want it to end. One of my favs “Marteria Girl” came on and if you wondered No I didn’t find a big  dude to carry me for this song. I know I failed but thankfully I was front row and had still good views. 😉 So yes people: Ich bin ein Marteria Girl / I am obviously a Marteria Girl but who wouldn’t be? Have you looked at him?! 🙂

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Pic by Denise Stocker

The three background singers each got a solo part. The girl from Brazil Solange did an amazing job rapping during “El Presidente”, the blonde newbie Madeleine Rauch during this song “Verstrahlt” and the pregnant lady Hanife will be doing hers later. After “Grosse Brüder” the band turned it down and Marteria sat down to sing a song for his son “Louis”.
 


It was a really lovely quiet moment but now the beat came back and we splashed some virtual money around for “Das Geld muss weg”. “Links” followed” with the words spread across the huge LED screen in the back. Marteria left the stage only to come back as his Alter Ego Marsimoto.
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Marsi is a green alien coming from space with lots of smoke… which made it quite hard to breathe for the security and the first few rows. He was allowed 4 songs “Grüner Samt”, “Kleine Bühne”, “Nazi” and the last song of Marsimoto “Döner”. Marsi went back to space and Marteria came back with the three hits which made him known to the mainstream. First up “OMG” and everyone went crazy for it. If you thought this was loud and crazy then you were wrong. With “Kids” the crowd went bonkers and literally EVERYBODY was singing along. The atmosphere was just full of energy and of people who were there to have a good time.

Alle haben ‘nen Job — ich hab Langeweile!
Keiner hat mehr Bock auf Kiffen, Saufen, Feiern
So ist das hier im Block, Tag ein Tag aus
Halt mir zwei Finger an den Kopf und mach:
Peng! Peng! Peng! Peng!

“Lila Wolken” is still one of my favourite songs ever and the pregnant singer Hanife straight from Hamburg city sang the part of Miss Platnum. Pete Boateng did the male singing part and Marteria his rap part. Just a beautiful song which will always remind me of the set at Gurtenfestival when we stayed up until the clouds really were purple again from the morning sun. I guess it was just a special night back then and it couldn’t be topped by this one. However I am not saying that last night wasn’t great because it was f***** awesome! The sound was amazing, the audience were brilliant, the band was incredible so this will deffo make my top 10 of the best concerts this year.
 


The band left the stage for the encore only to come back to sing “Welt Der Wunder”. Everyone in the audience lit up their phone or the lighter and a beautiful sea of lights made a wonderful background to this amazing song. Marteria raps:

Denn wir leben auf einem Blauen Planeten
Der sich um einen Feuerball dreht
Mit ‘nem Mond der die Meere bewegt
Und du glaubst nicht an Wunder
We live on a blue planet
Which is turning around a fireball
With a moon that moves the seas
And you don’t believe in wonders?!

If you haven’t looked at Marteria’s lyrics you should definitely do so now. He always has very smart lyrics and each time I listen to a song carefully I discover new little rhymes which I love. During “Feuer” everyone has to jump and this song is just full of party and energy and after two hours Marteria still got everyone under control. Everyone’s hands are up and singing/rapping along. Okay and now:

Welcome to the last 20 seconds of this song

Those 20 seconds last about 7 mins and it really is the last song of the night. Everyone should take of their shirts and wave them in the air during the 20 seconds of the song. Me as a pro Marteria girl I always take a scarf with me 😉 During the next 20 seconds the boys who took off their shirt will throw them through the air and this is done repeatedly. And again welcome to the last 20 seconds of this song Marteria walked through the crowd into the mosh pit in the middle. And again it’s jumping and waving and pushing time with Marteria right there in the midst of his crowd. Yesterday he wasn’t even able to get back so he just crowd surfed back during another last 20 seconds of the song. And finally the concert has ended. Marteria walks through the first row and high fives everyone. Back on stage he says thank you for coming out and always supporting us since the early days in Abart, Komplex 457 and now tonight 5000 people!
 


 
In his Instagram stories you saw that he was struggling with a flu and he still went on stage and you didn’t see a thing. He and his band gave us 200% of energy and we did our best to give it back to them. Again I have to say those kinds of artists are well worth supporting! Thank you to Mainland Music for bringing me to this awesome gig! Lastly I want to say thank you Marteria and Ich bin ein Marterial Girl forever! 🙂
Indicated pictures by Denise Stocker: http://www.kaulphotographs.com/
Have you been to one of Marteria’s gigs? Yes?! Share your story here in the comments or on my social media accounts Facebook, Instagram, Twitter!

Check out my last gigs: Xavier Naidoo, Mando Diao, Texas.

 

Allgemein, Concerts

Xavier Naidoo – A little heaven on earth / Ein bisschen Himmel auf Erden

Xavier Naidoo and his angelic voice brought his “Nicht von dieser Welt” tour to Zurich. On Monday I got a message that I’ve won in the advent calendar of Hallenstadion and so I was able to spend “Samichlaus” day in my 2nd living room 🙂 I really want to thank Hallenstadion for this amazing gift!
When I arrived at the Hallenstadion it was chaos. The people arrived by car and had to wait for a parking spot and then they were waiting in front of the venue to get in. Xavier Naidoo even had to delay the start of his set because half of the audience wasn’t in yet. This very quiet reflective concert was perfect after this troublesome start. We took our seats very close to the stage which was set in the middle of the Hallenstadion.
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At 8.20 Xavier Naidoo and three other musicians took the stage. They started with one of my favourite songs “Wo Willst Du Hin?” and I was totally in awe of these incredible musicians. I knew that I would love Xavier’s voice but this being an acoustic set the instruments were very prominent too. The drummer had lots of different instruments around him and it was incredible to see how easily he switched from one to the other. I loved the yellow egg thingy on the floor. I loved the sound of this very special drum instrument.


Xavier spoke a lot before and after every song. He explained why he wrote the song and why it’s important to him. I really really loved that. He was also quite funny. The musicians played “20’000 Meilen” and “Alles kann besser werden” which is another beautiful song and inspired me to this blog posts title. Xavier’s voice is a God given talent and listening to him brings a little bit of heaven to earth.

Alles kann besser werden
Holen wir uns den Himmel auf Erden
Alles soll besser werden
Holen wir uns den Himmel auf Erden
Alles wird besser werden
Wir holen uns den Himmel auf Erden
Und keiner muss sein Leben mehr gefährden
Einer der kostbarsten Schätze auf Erden

He sang a few songs which had various views of people in war and others were criticising our society. Xavier took a stand and the Swiss audience applauded ferociously. One of my favourite moments of the night was the song called “Still” (“Quiet”). You could hear a pin drop and I’ve never heard so many people being this quiet. We were all listening to Xavier’s pure angelic voice. I had goosebumps and closed my eyes to enjoy this very special moment. “Hört hört” (“Listen listen”) followed after being quiet for a song. And just before the 20 minute break a really special and beautiful love song was played “Sie Sieht Mich Nicht”. This song was the title track of the Asterix & Obelix movie in 1999.
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After the break the slow meaningful songs continued. Lots of lyrics to learn and I think this is why Xavier had a song book in front of him to help with the words. However you never ever had the feeling that he needed to look into it. He can put so much feeling into his songs. It is just WOW! He then said that it is always special to perform in front of amazing musicians who are sat in the audience. I wondered who it was but I didn’t need to wait long for the introduction of Seven! The two met a few years back at the brilliant Blue Balls festival in Lucerne and they participated in the VOX show “Sing meinen Song” and tonight they sang Sam Cookes “A Change is gonna come”. Absolutely stunning!
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And just before the encore one of the most amazing love songs was played “Ich kenne Nichts”. The whole Hallenstadion sang along and at the end we were split into two choirs. First up were the women singing the chorus but as Xavier said this song was written by a man to serenade a woman he asked just the men to sing. Surprisingly a very strong sounding men choir sang “Ich Kenne Nichts, das schön ist wie du”.
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Xavier Naidoo asked us if we need to do this silly game of him going off stage just to come back to do a few more songs. Obviously the answer was no and so he stayed and gave his encore just like that. “Dieser Weg” was his last song and the whole Hallenstadion stood up and sang together with Xavier. He finished the concert with the words:

Thank you for coming! Have a safe journey home.

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I love artists who do that. Again I want to thank the Hallenstadion for this amazing gift of an incredible night and a lot of special moments with my concert buddy. And finally I want to thank Xavier Naidoo for three hours heaven on earth. Gott schütze dich!
Have you been to Xavier Naidoo’s concerts? Please let me know how you felt about it in the comments below or on my social media accounts TwitterInstagram or Facebook.
Take a look at my last three concerts: Mando Diao, Texas, JP Cooper.

Allgemein, Concerts

Wakey Wakey Zurich! It's Mando Diao!

On Tuesday night I got to see Mando Diao at Kaufleuten thanks to Mainland Music. The venue was sold out and it was quite packed. Luckily I found a good spot on the balcony. The Swedish lads have been around for ages but I never managed to see them live so I was super excited to cross them off my bucket list.
Razz
First up were a German band called RAZZ who reminded me of The New Cities. I liked their music but they couldn’t fully catch my attention. Nevertheless it was a good warm up and the sound suited Mando Diao.
Mando Diao
At 8.30 the lights went off and a long intro started. Finally the 5 musicians came on stage and the energy immediately radiated off them. With “San Francisco Bay” and “All the Things” they literally tried to wake us up and Björn the lead singer asked the crowd to come even closer to the stage. So his first words to us were:

Wakey Wakey Zurich!

“Sweet Ride” was next and one of my favourite songs of the night was “Good Times”. I loved the vibe and the good feeling the song transported. It will deffo make my playlist. We were asked to put our hands up and everyone complied. This was the perfect way to get everyone clapping. It looked amazing from the balcony and the Kaufleuten was buzzin’. “All my senses”, “Dancing all the way to hell” and “One two three” followed and by then I knew I should have seen them live sooner. Mando Diao is an absolute force on stage and they are making sure that you will have a good time for around 100 minutes of your day.
Mando Diao
The lights were amazing and different for every song. During “Mr. Moon” and “The Band” I looked around the audience and everyone had a smile on their face and were dancing. During “Break Us” only Björn Dixgard and the first Mando Diao member Daniel Haglund were on stage. Together they played this beautiful ballade – moment to just enjoy. Björn’s voice is quite remarkable. It seems like he drinks Whiskey for breakfast to get this beautiful raspy voice.
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The three others came back and the rock show continued with “Voices on the radio”, “Watch me now” and “Down in the past”. The guys did an amazing job to include everyone. Even the people on the balcony were involved. Mando Diao created a great atmosphere! Suddenly it felt like Kaufleuten turned the heating on. The warmth was rising from the people below or maybe it was just because Björn took of his shirt? 😉
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Before we were all looking for that special girl in the audience we rocked to “You got nothing on me”. And there she was “Gloria” – a huge hit and everyone knew it so we were asked to sing the chorus. So everyone shouted “Gloria” but the rest of the lyrics were quite a mumble which made even the band smile. So here are the lyrics for next time:

So Gloria steps out from the prison
Gloria’s no longer the wasted disco girl
You’ve been dreaming about
Gloria, alone now forever
Gloria, away in the air now
Gloria, she’s no longer your slave, no, no

The Swedes left the stage after they played “Ochrasy” but of course they were brought back thanks to a continuous very loud cheer of the Kaufleuten audience. “Child” was the first encore but obviously they hadn’t played two of their biggest hits yet. So “Shake” was next and literally everybody was shaking their body and singing as loud as they could. During the song Björn went off stage and Jens Siverstedt took the mic. He introduced the bass player Carl-Johan Fogelklou, the drums Patrik Heikipieti – the beast from the north! – and Daniel on the keys.


Björn rejoined the band to sing one last song: “Dance with Somebody”! The energy level rose to the max and I guess this is why Mando Diao plays the smaller clubs. This kind of energy is quite hard to reach in bigger venues. I could see everyone’s hands in the air and we were all singing along. Patrik joined the four musicians in the front and the 5 stood there to orchestrate the Kaufleuten crowd. So the gig ended with a choir of

I’m falling in love with your favorite song
I’m gonna sing it all night long
I’m gonna dance with somebody
Dance with somebody
Dance, dance, dance

I absolutely loved this end to an amazing rock gig. Björn said they were proud to sing in front of us and thanked us for coming out to see them since without us they’d still be a band playing in a garage. These are the kind of artists I want to support with my hard earned money. A Mando Diao Fan is born – I know I’m a bit late to the party but hey better late than never! 😉 Hopefully they’ll be back for some festivals in the summer so I really have to start listening to their newest record “Good Times“.
Did you enjoy yesterday’s gig as much as me? Leave a comment and share your opinion below or on FacebookInstagram or Twitter.

Allgemein, Artist2watch

Artists2watch: Tom Grennan & Jake Isaac

Just Because is bringing two amazing artists to Zurich in December and you can still get tix for both shows. Both musicians are born in England and very talented. In any case if you love amazing music from artists who will make it big one day but are at the start it is well worth to check out other shows of Just Because. They have a talented in booking brill musicians like Jacob Banks or Angus & Julia Stone.

Tom Grennan

Let’s start with Tom Grennan. He made it onto the BBC sound of 17 list which is a huge indicator that he will make it big soon. Previous nominees are Ellie Goulding, Adele, Hurts and the list goes on and on. Tom Grennan already had a hit as the voice of Chase and Status’s song “When it all goes wrong” which was named as the hottest record by Annie Mac. Before that he was busking on the streets of London and now he is working with the producer of Florence & the Machines for his debut record. All of this sounds super promising but as you know I can only judge someone after seeing him live.
Tom Grennan plays the Papiersaal on Dec, 17th and tickets are available on starticket. But of course YouTube allows us to check his music out before the show and boy he sounds really really good and I totally understand why he made the sound of 17 list. But have a listen for yourself:

 
His voice is amazing, innit? 😉 Tom Grennan has a nice raspy voice and seems very down to earth. And like I already mentioned I think he is a super talented singer songwriter and I am very much looking forward to see him in December.

Jake Isaac

Jake Isaac is playing the Papiersaal on Dec, 10th and tickets are also available on starticket. He’s played Glastonbury and supported Ella Eyre and Paloma Faith. To me that shows he must be very good and it is well worth to spend a few quids on a ticket to his gig. After a few EP’s Jake Isaac released his debut record this May called “Our Lives” and he was signed to a record label called Rocket Records which is owned by the legendary Elton John. But enough about his background, let’s listen to some music:

 
Jake has a very warm deep voice and I know that I will be clapping my hands a lot. He’s just got that rhythm and soul that I love and he really does remind me a bit of Jacob Banks. Since he has already been on tour I’m expecting a good show and lots of good music.
Sometimes it’s the smaller shows that will be in your mind for quite a long time. Do you know why? Because the musician can actually see the people and even a small conversation can arise. JP Cooper or The Coronas are good examples for that. So if you decide to go to these gigs please let me know and say hi. I’d love to get to know my reader’s opinion 🙂

Allgemein, Concerts

Texas – Childhood memories and solid Scottish Entertainment

I was super excited to see Texas tonight even though I was still very sick but thanks to abc production I had wonderful seats on the balcony. I couldn’t wait to hear my favourite song “Summer Son” from way back when I was 8!
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The support act was an electro pop band called Hightre – a mix between La Roux and Pet Shop Boys! I really liked their set but unfortunately it was over after just 20 minutes. I would have loved to buy their CD but because Switzerland has those strict customs rules quite a few artists refrain from taking any merch with them. This happened now twice in a row. First JP Cooper and now Texas.
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Just before 8.30 Texas played the first chords of “The Conversation” and the tornado of Sharleen Spiteri took the stage. She ran around and animated the crowd to stand up and dance. I was kind of blown away! The atmosphere was brilliant from the start and I gotta say this never happens in the new venues such as Samsung Hall or Halle 622. The Volkshaus guarantees good atmosphere and I can recommend it to anyone! Throughout “Halo” and “Let’s work it out” people clapped and sang and I very much enjoyed watching the people and the band.
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Sharleen is one hell of an entertainer! She started to tell stories and jokes! Plus she interacted with the audience in a way which I haven’t seen in a long time. She looked at them and actually spoke with the first few rows and at one point even with a fellow Scottish lady on the balcony. In-between we heard new songs and old songs like “When we are together”, “Tell that Girl”, “Everyday now”. Sharleen also spoke about the Scottish culture and her family life. But the most eye-opening moment was when she said that the  band started out 30 years ago! People including me couldn’t believe it 🙂
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Sharleen had 5 other musicians on stage but she was clearly the star of the show and filled it like a whirlwind. I thoroughly enjoy the gig – the music – the talking – the atmosphere. LOVED IT! I also liked that the audience were there to enjoy the music. You rarely saw a phone or a camera. It’s probably because most people were around 40-50. Next were the songs called “Thrill has gone”, “For Everything”, “Tired of being alone” and “So called friend”.
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I went to the concert because of that one song and I was dying to hear it and finally I heard the chords I knew so well! “Summer Son” was one of my highlights of the evening and I could see the 8 year old me rocking out to this tune. After this Texas played “Midnight” and a beautiful love song called “In Demand” where even the “oldies” got their smartphones out to light up the place. Surprisingly I knew more songs than I thought “I don’t want a lover” is a classic! At one point Texas invited an avid fan on stage to sing a song with Sharleen. Another highlight! “Black Eyed Boy” followed before they played “Say what you want” which is another hit! So before we even knew it they quickly left the stage only to come back for the last two songs.
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When Texas started to play “Inner Circle” I couldn’t believe it! I knew that song too because of the movie Bend it like Beckham. I seriously didn’t know that this song was by Texas so obviously I stood up again and sang along. Sharleen introduced the last song like this:

If you don’t know this song within the first 3 chords, LEAVE!

Again the whole crowd was laughing and at the same time everyone was a bit sad because this was the last song called “Suspicious Minds”. After two hours of entertainment everyone left the Volkshaus happy. We all enjoyed an amazing night of good music and good fun – the Irish would say good craic! 😉
Have you seen Texas live? Please share your experience in the comments below or on my Twitter, Facebook or Instagram account.

Allgemein, Concerts

Under grey skies is a lot of good music

On Tuesday I got to see two brilliant artists: JP Cooper and Supporting him on his European tour the Irish band Picture This. Back home they are very well known but over here they are Newcomers.
I already started to feel sick when I went out so it was no wonder that by the time JP was one stage I had no voice at all. But first things first. I arrived at Papiersaal and this time it was mandatory to leave your jacket at the wardrobe. Me being sick and feeling cold I still had to give them my jacket. Plus pay 2 francs! So I was super furious but this feeling got stronger when I saw loads of people with jackets inside. Apparently they only started these shenanigans a bit later so the first to arrive were allowed in with jackets. This guaranteed chaos after the concert. I normally don’t add these kinds of things into my review because these things have nothing to do with the artist but is seriously taking the piss and I don’t understand it at all.
sdr
At 8 Picture This took the stage and I had kind of a deja vu. A few weeks ago I saw the Irish lads of the Coronas right on this stage and Ryan sounded a bit like Danny. However Picture This do have their own sound and I really really liked it. I also loved how Ryan spoke with us and told us some stories to the songs. For example the song “Jane” was written for a specific girl but he didn’t want to make her feel that special in naming the song after her so he just picked a random name. They started their set with “Let’s be young”, “Everything I need” and “Dream” – A beautiful ballade. Just before “Jane” we enjoyed “Addicted to you”… Well we is a bit much. There were loads of people chit chatting about their day. I seriously don’t understand how you can be so disrespectful to an artist.
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The last three songs “Never Change”, “You & I” and “Take my hand” were over way to fast and the lads left the stage after some more stories. I mean they really had to go since Ireland was playing the World Cup qualification game and they had to cheer for them 😉 In case you wonder Ireland unfortunately lost against Denmark and is not going to the World Cup next year.
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And I deffo lost my voice by 9pm while JP Cooper stepped on stage with his first song “Under grey skies” which is the title track of his debut record. Me trying to “woohoo” after the song to show my appreciated failed royally. So I enjoyed the concert quietly. The 2nd song “She’s on my mind” is a brilliant track to dance to and I was very glad I came. Next we heard “Change” and “Birthday”. After which someone shouted “happy belated Birthday JP!” and the whole crowd started to sing Happy Birthday. He was very touched and said I think this will be a good night.
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It took him quite a long time to be successful with his music. Before his first record “Under Grey Skies” he released a few EP’s of which he will sing the next song called “Satellite”. A beautifully slow song with which he could show off his wonderful voice was this ballade called “Streetlights and the moon”. “Closer” he wrote for his son since he hopes that one day his son will understand why Daddy’s gone quite a few times during the year – A very touching moment. With “September Song” he sang the song literally everyone knew and loved. This song gave him his breakthrough and I am sure will be only the start of a great career.
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“Wait” and “Shivers” were next. He then apologised to the people who came here and thought he was a dance artist since he collaborated with Jonas Blue to sing one of my last year’s summer hits “Perfect Strangers”. For the last song before the Encore he told us the story about him loosing his passport while he was in the process of writing his new album. So he thought I have to write a song about this and here it was “Passport Home”. After a quick break he came back on to cover a John Lennon song. However I know “Jealous Guy” by Gavin DeGraw and I did see some similarities. Both guys sang it beautifully and I had goose-bumps. Thank you JP for singing this beautiful song.
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After 90 minutes JP said Goodbye with “Good Friend” and I really do hope that he is coming back soon and I can enjoy the concert without being feverish and including my voice. Of course the jacket chaos started and we decided to stay close to the backstage door since we were told that he’s coming out to meet fans. He did quite quickly after the show and I unfortunately couldn’t tell him at all how I loved his gig since I couldn’t utter a word. He understood anyway.. What a lovely guy and amazing musician so it is well worth supporting him.
Were you at one of his gigs? Leave your opinion on twitter, facebook or instagram or down below in the comment section. 

Allgemein, Concerts

Punk Rock vom Feinsten! Punk Rock at its best!

Die Toten Hosen graced Zurich and the Hallenstadion with two nights of their Laune der Natour tour. So I enjoyed my Friday night with those amazing musicians. A lot of people did the same and went back on Saturday again. Let me tell you guys that this concert wasn’t like any other concert I’ve been to.


First difference: At 8 o’clock on the dot Campino – the lead singer of the Toten Hosen – came on stage to introduce their special guests. I’ve never seen the main act introduce their support. I absolutely loved it and to be honest I think it should be like that all the time. It’s a f***** hard job to get out in front of people who actually don’t want to see you and are only waiting for the main act. So kudos to every support act. YOU ROCK! Now back to the gig. Campino told us:

This band from Brighton is one of their favourite UK bands at the moment, so make some noise for The Barstool Preachers!

After a hug the show started and I absolutely loved their music and their attitude. I would have liked to buy some merch and their record but unfortunately we couldn’t find it anywhere… Anyway they did an amazing job and how cool is that name??? Plus they had a song where they actually sang about this dude who preaches from his bar stool. So well done you guys. Hope to see you again soon.
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The songs played before the show were carefully chosen. We heard Campino’s buddy Marteria, Kaiser Chiefs, Blur and just before the show the whole crowd started to sing “You’ll Never Walk Alone”! How amazing is that?!?! Me in my Liverpool shirt singing YNWA I don’t think I ever started a concert in such a happy place 😀 (P.S: for those of you who don’t know Campino is a huge LFC fan like me)
sdr
At 9 die Toten Hosen flags were raised and they came on stage with a bang! For the first song “Urknall” everyone was already singing along and lots of flags were also raised within the audience in the front section. I was mesmerised. “Auswärtsspiel”, “Du lebst nur einmal”, “Laune der Natur” followed. The atmosphere was already boiling and lots of beer was thrown around and drunken too 😉 Mosh pits were forming and people were jumping and just having a good time. Even the people with seating tickets were standing!
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I knew that I won’t be singing a lot since I didn’t know a lot of lyrics and songs but it really didn’t matter. The songs are designed that everyone can singalong to during the chorus. So I gladly joined in for “Niemals einer Meinung” and “Die Schöne und das Biest”. I also had time to have a look around the audience. I’ve never seen such a mixed crowd. You saw families, a lot of guys but also women of all ages. Die Toten Hosen manage to embrace everyone. “Liebeslied” was played but then for “Bonnie & Clyde” you could really hear the crowd singing. Finally a song I knew “Altes Fieber” and I jumped up and was chanting along.
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“Wie viele Jahre (Hasta la muerte” is another crowd favourite and is always a big hit. (Also in the merch department) You could seriously sense their energy and it vibrated off into the crowd. All of the lads are around 50 and they still rock around like 20 year olds. For the next two slower songs “Tauschen gegen Dich” and “Ertrinken” they got the strings out! They showed that they can’t just rock around but also do slow songs. I especially like the great thoughtful lyrics. But I just realised that I won’t be able to catch up on all the old songs who the real Toten Hosen Fans know by heart. But anyway it is an amazing band and you deffo need to see them live. Again I was surprised when they started to sing English. The guys sang “Pushed Again”. They did a brill job!
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“Alles was war” was next and I liked “Unter den Wolken” a lot because I kinda knew it! 🙂 Somewhere in the depth of my lyrics mind I found the words to sing to this song. I loved it haha Suddenly the first rows started to kneel down and I was like what’s going on?? Campino then explained to the others that we all have to sit down now. We gladly obliged only to jump up to the chorus of “Steh auf, wenn du am Boden bist!”. The atmosphere was buzzin. Only that afternoon I started to listen to some songs and I really really loved a song called “Wannsee” and lucky for me they played it. Campino got the strings back on stage and said let’s get the Vodka Ltd out. It was absolutely hilarious. He explained before that before the strings joined the tour they were running low on alcohol but now it’s Vodka at 3pm! (At least for them not the guys) 🙂
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Another older song was played “Das Mädchen aus Rottweil” before die Toten Hosen took a stand with “Willkommen in Deutschland”. It is honestly quite hilarious to listen to the stories the lads tell. Campino mentioned a living room concert in 1993 or that they had a fondue with lots of Kirsch in it after a gig. When they walked home to the hotel they realised they lost a band member so they walked back. He had fallen down a hole on a construction site! I couldn’t stop laughing. The gig went on with “Paradies” and “Wünsch dir was”. Just before they left the stage for their first encore they sang “Hier kommt Alex”! After 90 mins straight we had a quick break.


Die Toten Hosen won’t run out of songs to play so they came back with “Alles passiert”, “Mehr davon” and “Alles aus Liebe”. Only to play one of the most famous songs “Zehn kleine Jägermeister”. I didn’t think they would play that one but I enjoyed it a lot! The people gave out a loud cheer when they started to sing it so I wasn’t the only one. A lovely song to say goodbye to is “Schönen Gruss, auf Wiederseh’n”. But they only said goodbye for a few seconds. Campino came back with a Fortuna Düsseldorf shirt which Breiti gave him as a present. So I felt right at home with my Liverpool shirt. Plus I wasn’t the only one in a football shirt. It was quite funny to see: the audience either wore a Hosen shirt or a football jersey. There weren’t many people wearing plain clothes.
oznor
“All die ganzen Jahre” and “Freunde” were song 28 and 29 on the set list. They guys played over 2 hours now and they weren’t finished. Campino told us you know that we are here the whole weekend so you know that we have time. Do you want us to play some more songs? Of course we did and a loud cheer confirmed this. So this song is probably the most mainstream song die Toten Hosen got. It’s played on the radio, in football stadiums or at political conventions. Once you release a song you don’t have much power over where its played. Campino explained:

“Tage wie diese” was written for nights like these!

The guys cannot leave the stage without playing this song. Whether you are a Liverpool Fan or a Fortuna or FCZ or Basel or supporting Switzerland, this song brings people together and connects them. It is my favourite song and the best way to end this amazing concert:

When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don’t be afraid of the dark
At the end of a storm
There’s a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark
Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart
And you’ll never walk alone
You’ll never walk alone
Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart
And you’ll never walk alone
You’ll never walk alone
Have you ever been to a Toten Hosen concert? Let me know in the comments below!