Allgemein, Concerts

All of the Lights

Yesterday I enjoyed my first gig in 2018. Alt-J played their biggest show in Switzerland to date at Hallenstadion Club and it was a super special gig. I am very grateful to Just Because for bringing these interesting artists to Switzerland and for always supporting my blog.
Like I said in my New Music post I am so curious about these british lads. So I got to the venue with mixed feelings. As soon as Alt-J started their show they had me. I was in awe of their light show and I still am. It was fascinating to see how it matched the music. The patterns and the colours were absolutely incredible. Who would have thought that a few light bulbs can make for such a show!


I do have a few pictures to show you but this show is really hard to catch in a picture. This is why I recommend you to go onto my Instagram page and have a look at my Alt-J highlights. The trio started their show with “Deadcrush”, “Fitzpleasure” and “Something Good”. I spent the first few songs staring at the lights and was mesmerized by it. “Nara” and “The Gospel of John Hurt” followed. I finally got round to focus on the voice of Joe Newman. He’s got a super special way of singing but it totally matches their sound and their show.

Before “In Cold Blood” Alt-J spoke to their Swiss fans and the first woop’s were heard. But I gotta say the crowd was very quiet but I guess everyone was just fascinated by the show. What I really loved about last night’s audience was that they were really relaxed. Everyone had a good time even if they weren’t the loudest crowd I’ve seen at least they seemed to enjoy themselves. “Ripe & Ruin”, “Tessellate” and the Intro of “This is All Yours” followed my favourite Alt-J song.
Alt-J
The lights sparkled and changed colours from green to pink to blue. “Every other Freckle”, “Hunger of the Pine” and “Bloodflood” were next. I wasn’t really dancing because I was watching the show so I started to get really cold. I think there was also a draft in the Hallenstadion and I looked like an eskimo with my jacket and scarf on 🙂 Finally for Matilda the crowd started to wake up and dance a little more. For the last few songs “Dissolve Me”, “Pleader” and “Taro” there was quite a good atmosphere. After an hour they played “Left hand free” before Alt-J went off stage for the encore.

Joe Newman, Gus Unger-Hamilton and Thom Green obviously came back for two more songs before they sent their Swiss audience back into the snowy rain to get home. The encore began with an intro of their debut record An Awesome Wave. Their huge hit “3WW” followed. But my favourite song because of the light show and the up-tempo feel of the song was “Breezeblocks”. Alt-J put all the lights in action with as many colours as possible and it was a brilliant to their 90mins set.
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Were you at the gig yesterday? Did you enjoy the light show as much as me? Leave a reply below.

Check out my latest gigs: Hoodie Allen, Stone Sour, Tom Grennan
Allgemein, Artist2watch

Artist to Watch: Elliot Root

At The Coronas concert I learned about this band called Elliot Root. They are 5 musicians from Nashville, Tennessee who slowly built their fan base since 2009 by playing all around town. They were already opening for the famous Zac Brown Band and released a few short EP’s. Finally, in 2017 a proper album got released and is called “Conjure“. Let me show you their newest single 10’000:

Officially they’re in the Alternative/Indie Rock genre but to me they just have a great sound and brilliant rhythm. I love to listen to this song especially because of the light sound and the beautiful voice. I say that a lot I know but each voice is different and recently I’ve discovered some WOW-voices. But you also know me there’s nothing like seeing an artists live. Unfortunately they haven’t planned any European dates but maybe we get fortunate pretty soon. For now let’s watch this live video of “Wicked Lies”:

Full of energy, aren’t they?! Scott Krueger is the lead singer and plays the guitar. His voice sounds like he’s had his fare share of whiskey even though he is still quite young. A roughed up voice which sounds amazing is right up my sleeve. The four musicians Todd Bond, Melissa Mattey, Justin Smith and Sean Truskowski are fullfilling the band with their great play of guitars, keyboards, bass and drums. In 2015 Scott Krueger gave a phone interview to the Tennessean talking about Nashville and their influences:

We fit in (with Nashville) because we’ve taken a little bit from many different influences that the city has to offer and have applied it as honestly as possible to the music. I think that’s what’s great about Nashville … there is a diversity, and there is an understanding of all of the music from the people who live here

Elliot Root if you are reading this believe me Zurich, Switzerland has a big understanding of music too 😉
If you ask me how do they sound like I’d say difficult question. I actually don’t want to compare any bands since they are all unique. However they remind me a bit of Welshly Arms who I’ve recently got to watch live and Krueger reminds me of the lead singer of Billy Talent. Just have a listen for yourself and if you love them as much as I do follow them on all their social media accounts and check their page for tour dates.
An artist to watch for me but what do YOU think? Leave a message in the comments below.