Kekoas Korner got to travel to Basel to see Mumford and Sons at St. Jakobshalle on Sunday. I’ve never been to the venue and I have never seen them live so I was pretty excited. I heard only great things about their live performances and I’ve seen them on TV a few times so I was expecting a lot. Surprisingly the stage on the Delta Tour was set in the middle of venue which I already liked. So here’s a little more how the evening went:
Gang of Youths got the moves
The support act Gang of Youths is an Australian indie rock band from Sydney. Unfortunately I was quite distracted because I couldn’t find my phone and I thought I’d lost it. However, silly me, I put in my boots just minutes ago – which I always do when I have my boots on but I completely forgot. So the first 3 songs were kind of a blur. After huge waves of relief were flooding through me I could finally focus on Gang of Youths. Oh boy, David – the lead singer – can dance. Those moving hips were another distraction. He looked like the dancers on Let’s Dance Germany haha
I was super excited to see Noah Kahan and Dean Lewis on April 7th at Kaufleuten Zürich. I’ve only heard good things about both of them and I guess I wasn’t the only one. When we started queuing an hour and half before doors opened we never expected so many people already there. By the time the doors actually opened people queued around the block! I don’t think I’ve ever seen this at this venue before.
Noah Kahan
We managed to get a good spot in front row and now it was time to wait. Luckily when you are in good company time flies. At 8 o’clock Noah Kahan and his band mates came on stage. The wooping and clapping was already unusally loud. Not only did we get to experience very good songs we enjoyed Noah’s funny stories as well. The guys started with “Passenger” and “False Confidence”. I love when artists crack a joke or tell us the stories behind the songs and Noah Kahan did just that. The set continued with “Carlo’s song” and “Mess”.
But here it is. The song that everyone knows and can singalong to. It’s been on the radio for weeks and the Swiss audience surprised Noah by singing loudly along to “Hurt Somebody”. Noah and his band are incredible musicians and I would have loved to hear more of them but he’s “Only” the warm-up so unfortunately after just a few songs they had to leave the stage. They finished the set with “Young Blood” and I hope they are coming back for a headlining show soon!
Dean Lewis
Holy smokes! Wow! The Swiss audience screamed their lungs out when Dean Lewis took the stage at 9pm. I think I’ve never needed my earplugs more haha Dean Lewis started his set with “Hold of me” and the Swiss crowd knew every single lyrics. I was super suprised and so was Dean. I think this was one of the loudest singing crowd’s I’ve experienced. “Need you now” and “Place we knew” were next and the singing never stopped. A very emotional song for everyone was “Stay Awake” and I think this totally overwhelmed Dean Lewis. He said that he’s never heard a crowd sing this song as loudly as we did. You could tell by his smile that he loved this show and he loved the Swiss audience.
“Chemicals” and “lose my mind” followed this lovely moment and when he sat down to play a song by himself on his key board he was literally in front of me. And the funniest thing was he actually asked me and the girls how we were and if we’re good. Of course we were and I did my famous two thumbs up haha. With “Half a man” he enchanted Kaufleuten. His beautiful voice, the thoughtful lyrics and his piano skills was all it took to shut the usually chatty Kaufleuten crowd up. I loved it! What a great night it was 🙂
The band came back for “Time to go” and “Don’t hold me”. Back at the piano Dean Lewis performed his biggest hit “Be Alright” and the crowd’s singing got even louder! A magic moment with all the camera lights in the air swaying to the song. Check out my highlights on IG to get a little glimpse of that special moment. A lovely girl in the front row thought of something really cool. She printed out loads of A4 paper with “We won’t stop loving you! <3” on them. During “7 Minutes” we were suppose to hold it up. And our moment came now. A sea of white paper swaying along to the full song and the reaction to this was priceless. First Dean Lewis looked confused and then he read what was written on them and the biggest smile appeared.
Again we were told how cool and awesome of an audience we are and I think he really meant it. Because it really was true. The girls in the first rows were incredibly loud and knew every song. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it now. Now this made me like Dean Lewis even more. He said that this band made him want to be a musician and of course he’s talking about the incredible Oasis! (Last year I got to see Liam Gallagher live, read more here) I loved Dean Lewis’ rendition of “Don’t look back in Anger”. Since the Manchester attack at the Ariana Grande gig this song means even more to me than before.
“For the last time” which reminded me a bit of the Script’s “For the first time” – just because I’m a bit obsessed with them as you know – was the last song before the encore. I think the people weren’t ready to let Dean Lewis go. With a deafening applause the Swiss crowd wanted him back on stage and of course they got their wish. “Straight back down” and his first single which got him known in Australia “Waves” were his last two songs of the night. Just after 10 Dean Lewis was finished and I think everyone in the crowd loved this amazing gig. A few of us stayed a bit longer and we were rewarded with an unplugged rendition of “Be Alright” on the streets of Zurich. I’ve never seen an artist come out and instead of taking pics and giving autographs he gave us a little private concert. I loved it and again it was such a special way to finish the night.
Dean Lewis and Noah Kahan treated us with a special night of great voices, great music and amazing lyrics to singalong to. I hope they both will be back very soon! 🙂
Dean Lewis and Noah Kahan – Two incredible singer songwriters going on tour together! This is a must go to gig for everyone who loves a man and a guitar shows. In addition to that I think this will be your last chance to see them in a relatively small venue at Kaufleuten because both of them are rising stars and will soon fill much bigger venues.
Dean Lewis
Dean Lewis is an Aussie slowly making it all over the world. With his first single “Waves” gaining traffic in Australia while his 2nd single “Be Alright” is already getting airplay in Europe and he sold out his show last winter at Papiersaal. So it’s only fitting that he’s playing the next bigger venue now. Fast forward into 2019 where he released his 3rd single “7 Minutes” and his back for another show on Sunday, April 7th at Kaufleuten. You can get tix here.
In an article I read that he is a huge Oasis fan and that they basically thought him how to write songs. So we all know the legendary hits “Wonderwall” or “Don’t look back in Anger” and we can only hope that Dean Lewis will be writing hits just like that and you can say you’ve been there from the start! 🙂
Noah Kahan is an American singer who released his first song “Youngblood” in 2017. He is working with with Joel Little who is also responsible for the hits of Lorde and Khalid. But I’m sure you know this guy from his most recent single “Hurt Somebody” featuring Julia Michaels. The song has been playing on the radio non-stop over the last few months.
twitter.com/noahkahan
Like Dean Lewis I think that Noah Kahan will be making it big time since he is such a talented singer songwriter and he’s got great people backing him. I can only recommend you to come to the show on April 7th and see/ hear for yourself those two amazing individuals putting up a brill show which you’ll be remember as your “I see them first”-moment.
A few weeks ago I wrote about their newest albumSnow in my New Music category. So I was quite curious how Angus and Julia Stone sounded live and lucky for me Just Because made it happen. I was quite afraid that I wouldn’t like Julia’s voice since it’s quite mellow and usually I don’t like that kind of voice. Little did I know that I’d be a fan by the end of the night.
Isaac Gracie opened the night. He has a special voice and it was nice listening to him. However it seemed like he didn’t click with the audience even though he seemed super nice. Maybe it was just because the venue was too big for him.
Finally just after 9pm the siblings took the stage and I immediately was super impressed. They had a huge LED screen in the back where beautiful pictures were shown. In front of that screen Angus and Julia Stone had a totem which had LED lights included too. A smoke machine run wild with a lot of smoke coming off the stage. All of this created a mysterious atmosphere.
The two were accompanied by four other musicians coming together from all over the world. They started with “Baudelaire” and “Make it out alive”. Then they directed a few words towards the crowd and I could see that they loved to be here and enjoyed being on stage. Next we heard “Cellar door” and “Heart beats”. By then I was in love with them. The artists created a beautiful atmosphere with their music, their stage and spreading the love all around Zurich.
Julia
Angus
The new song “Chateau” came on and I loved it! It is such a beautiful song and live it was even better. The voice of Angus is much stronger and deeper live and Julias is just incredibly beautiful. My worries that I wouldn’t like her voice were blown away in an instant. I enjoyed every song 🙂
Julia then said that she loved writing love songs which the next song “Wherever you are” is. In “Bloodhound” Angus took the lead with his raspy voice and I adored it. Their harmonies were incredible and you could sense that the two of them know each other since they were kids. All guitar lovers were made happy too with the wonderful guitars (including a banjo) Angus and the other musicians played.
Angus
Julia
“Private Lawns”,”Who do you think” and “Nothing Else” were the songs before the big big hit “Big Jet Plane”. Everyone seemed to know the it and sang along. Julia asked the audience to get out ours phones and light it up. This created and incredible sight to a beautiful song. They seemed to enjoy it as much as we do. Being at concerts as often as I am I mostly enjoy the concerts where the artist loves to be there too. So this was definitely one! For the next song “For You” Julia explained the story behind it. She was dating a guy for 8 years when they broke up. She realised later that she was still in love with him so she wrote this song on guitar hero (How adorable! :-)) and sent it to him in an e-mail.
If I talk real slowly
If I try real hard
To make my point dear,
That you have my heart
It took him weeks to write back but eventually he did. It said “Cool song!” and attached was a random song he wrote which was a mix of metal and hip hop. My heart flew out to her.
Angus
Julia
Julia
The duo introduced the next song “My House” by saying:
We are in your house and you are kinda in our house
So this is what the next song is about. Such a lovely song and we had to help them sing the chorus which created a unifying atmosphere full of love. For the title track “Snow” they brought out the big guns. In the middle of the song it literally started snowing and it wouldn’t stop. What a wonderful idea! This seemed like the last song to me but they only disappeared for the encore and came back to sing 3 more songs. “A Heartbreak” and “Uptown” of their own songs. But they finished with a shanty called “Stonecutters” since they grew up with sailing parents and grand parents. I love those kinds of songs and it was the perfect end to a wonderful evening.
If you can make sure to check out Angus and Julia Stone live. Click here to check out their tour dates! Were you at the concert in Zurich or in Geneva? Let me know how you liked Angus and Julia Stone in the comments below.
