Allgemein, Concerts

Seven: 4 colours, 2 hours, 8 musicians

Many of my international readers probably won’t know Seven. He’s a Swiss musician and he’s been around for quite some time. I’ve seen him last summer at the Gurtenfestival and Seven and his band shared a very special moment with us. He asked us to close our eyes and listen to “Help”.
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With “Help” Seven and his 7 musicians started their set at the sold out Kaufleuten last night. A very brave move to start with a slow song. Unfortunately in this venue most of the people are not there to actually listen to the lyrics. They are there because it’s the place to be so they are chatting throughout the gig. So disrespectful! Now let me introduce you to Seven’s show concept. His newest album is called 4 colours and it supports the various songs on the album and gives a bit of structure to it.
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First he started with blue and after “Help” we got hear “Thank you Pain” and “Lisa”. The colour changed to yellow and the tempo of the songs got faster. A little summer thunderstorm started to break out in Kaufleuten and they performed “I can’t wait for the rain”. Another warm song “City of Gold” got us dancing and singing. Then Seven spoke about his incredible year he had last year after he was invited to join the programme “Sing meinen Song” (Sing my song). It’s a German programme where around 7 musicians participate. They meet up and sing each others songs and the outcome are beautiful new songs of classics.


So Seven sings Xavier Naidoo‘s version of his song “Go Slow” which like he said is sing sing my song song. Absolutely hilarious! Seven is an entertainer and shared private stories as well as jokes which I really really loved. And of course this concept goes both ways so he sang one of Xavier’s song and my favourite “Das hat die Welt noch nicht gesehen”. So different but so cool! 🙂 It was time to change the colours again…
Time for Red. During “Trick” I stood up again and danced away. Luckily I had enough space and I really enjoyed this moment. This next song “Black Pearl” he sang for his wife. They are sharing two kids and Seven said how humbling it is to come back to a normal life after a gig like this. His son won’t ask him how the gig was but he will ask

Papi, Lego?

Again the whole Kaufleuten was laughing. Finally he sang his first single and my favourite. But of course Seven being Seven he didn’t perform it the way it was. Him and his super talented band mates turned it into a complete new song. A song that I even like more than the old version! Again you have to be really brave to do that or maybe as talented as they are to pull that off.
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Another interlude and a colour change followed. Time for Purple. Time to dance. Time for funk. “Africa”, “1978”, “Brave” and “Partytown” turned Kaufleuten into a disco party. More and more people stood up and the people downstairs were already dancing. A quick walk through the crowd and high five’s to everyone on the way to the stage was also part of the set. Seven knows how to feel everyone welcome and to entertain big or small crowds. He is a an incredible musician and so talented. I am repeating myself but it’s true. He deserves all the praise he gets and I wish that he and his band can continue to do what they love. The passion, the love for music is palpable and this transfers onto the audience. Concerts like these are the best!
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After a quick party set Seven did something I have never seen at Kaufleuten. He was able to shut up the chit chatters with “What if”. A beautiful moment. With “High” the band finished a brilliant two hour set. It was time to go home and play lego. 🙂
Have you seen Seven live? Please share your experience with us and leave a reply below.

Latest gigs: Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Sunrise Avenue, Franz Ferdinand
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.