Tag: Electro Pop Band

Allgemein, Concerts

All of the Lights

kekoaskorner

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.
2018-01-21 23.36.58
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, New Music

New Music: Relaxer by Alt-J

kekoaskorner

Alt-J is a current 3 piece British band from Leeds. Alt-J fans are enjoying their unique indie electronic pop since 2007. Last year they released their 3rd album Relaxer and lucky us Just Because is bringing them to Club Hallenstadion on Sunday, 21st February 2018. There are still tickets available on Ticketcorner: Just click here.
Alt-J reminds me of an artist called Jean-Michel Jarre who I’ve seen a few years ago. Their sound seems to go in this direction. From instrumental tunes to main stream songs over to very mellow songs. It is quite interesting and I am looking forward to see how their Live show is. Will they be working with lights and laser? Will it be very DJ-like? I’ve got lots of questions and the answers will follow next Monday right here on Kekoas Korner.
Enough talking let’s listen to some music! The lead singer of the record is a feature with Ellie Rowsell of Wolf Alice and is called “3WW”:

Special right?! Special is always good. I love how the song starts really quiet and slow and it builds and it breaks again. And another special song of the new album with a beat that I like is called “In Cold Blood” and is their 2nd single of the album Relaxer.

And finally I want to show you an old song “Matilda” from their debut album An Awesome Wave. Over the years the band experienced some changes but also great success. Alt-J played various festivals and won the British Mercury Prize in 2012. Another fact is that Alt-J’s band name looks actually like this ∆. But I guess no-one would be able to pronounce the name. To me this is another interesting fact about the band. And you guessed right I have another fun fact about Alt-J. The cover of Relaxer was especially made for them by a Japanese artist Osamu Sato who created the Playstation Game LSD.

Alt-J_-_Relaxer_cover
wikipedia.org

Track list:

  1. 3WW
  2. In Cold Blood
  3. House of the Rising Sun
  4. Hit Me Like That Snare
  5. Deadcrush
  6. Adeline
  7. Last Year
  8. Pleader

Sounds interesting? So go get your tix for Sunday and say hi to me at the gig 🙂 If you can’t go keep following Kekoas Korner on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to keep a close eye on the concert.
alt-j-2017-press-credit-gabriel-green-060317

Allgemein, Concerts

Texas – Childhood memories and solid Scottish Entertainment

kekoaskorner

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!
2017-11-19 21.05.59
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.
2017-11-19 22.43.48
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.
2017-11-19 21.58.31
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 🙂
2017-11-19 21.57.42
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”.
2017-11-19 22.45.03
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.
2017-11-19 22.53.20
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.