Max Giesinger in Zürich

After I’ve seen Max Giesinger last summer at Loreley for the first time live, I believed it would take ages til I’d see him again, and esp. not in Switzerland. But you sure never know how things turn out. Shortly after Mainland Music  already announced the concert in Zurich. Oh, how squirrely, excited and full of anticipation I was for this concert.

Like many others  Max Giesinger had started with putting covers as well as own songs on Youtube. He became known then through the first season of The Voice Of Germany in 2012, in which he became fourth with the help of his coach Xavier Naidoo. Musician has always been more his scene. The started apprenticeship in a bank he stopped already after 2 weeks, as he told during the concert that evening. He must have been the most unmotivated apprentice ever, he was laughing.

His debut album “Laufen lernen” was funded with a crowdfunding in 2014. His second album “Der Junge, der rennt” was realeased in 2016 then. From it the song “80 Millionen” developed to a radio hit. He even changed it into a football version for EM 2016, was having a hit with and was number two in the German charts. After Max Giesinger had played some living room concerts in Switzerland at the beginning and was supporting Johannes Oerding at Moods Zurich 3 years ago, after 8 years he finally came for his first tour concert to Zurich . And many obviously had been waiting eagerly for this.

Martin Haller, named Haller, opened up the evening at Papiersaal. The Achen musician played in Zurich for the first time, even in Switzerland the first time. Singing along to his song was easy as they were “popsongs”, he asked to go along the audience grinning. And still titles as his favourite “Lawine” [video here] or “Junge” are not just simple pop songs, but the lyrics do have a deeper meaning. He sang about touching events, sure everyone could understand and feel for. With this and his likable manner, he convinced quite quickly. Though somehow I had to get used to the singing, the very high voice, first. It did depend on the song though. It was a nice start into the evening.

Of course Max Giesinger and his band were untopable though. In dimmed light the band entered stage – Klaus on keys, Steffen on guitare, Paul on bass and Lars on the drums. The intro went over into the actual album title song “Der Junge, der rennt”. We could hear Max’ voice, but didn’t see him. Until we turned around, where we could see him on our right in the back on a hightening, from where he started the song and came through the audience on stage.

His first headliner concert in Switzerland and it was sold out with about 500  visitors. In Germany they already play bigger concerts. With the catchy melodies, the power of the band, as well as the energy and enthusiasm of the audience, I felt put back to Loreley. Amazing – stadium feeling in the small Papiersaal. And Max was barely standing on stage, he already jumped into the audience again to wander around and greet the audience personally. Outgoing and totally close to the audience, just like he was at Loreley.

Even it was the first proper concert, the audience knew the lyrics. Esp. the radio songs like “Wenn sie tanzt” [video here], he even was making exercises for and encouraged everyone to dance and joining in, word by word was sang along. But not only along this one, but also the most others.

Inbetween it became also a bit more quite. Like during “Du kannst das” [video here], “Nicht anders gelernt” or later, in about the middle of the show, when he and guitarist Steffen sat down on stooles with guitares to play a short two song accoustic set. Max told us, how he met Steffen years ago at a school bands contest. Steffen barely could understand him at the beginning with the Swabian dialect and Max suddendly kept wondering, why he was trying to speak proper German with us Swiss. Our dialects were so similar. For example “Hochzyt” would almost sound the same. And he even learnt some Swiss words – “Chuchichäschtli”, “Büsi” and “Geisli”. Exactly Max, you’ll get far in every day life with these words. Hehe. They played “Alles auf Anfang” together, before Klaus grabbed another guitare to join them for “Die guten Tage strahlen”.

Max even learnt e-piano, so there was some change  in the show and some other instruments could be heard. So he sat down behind the keys and played his versions of Coldplay’s “Fix You”, that he had performed back then in the first live show of the Voice. Besides he sang with help of the audience choir Michael Jackson’s “Earth song”. He also stayed for “Nicht so schnell”, before the band already came to the last song with “80 Millionen” [video here].

Of course they weren’t just let go and were brought back on stage for “Vielleicht im nächsten Leben” and “Für immer”. In a beautiful sea of light they ended their first Swiss tour concert. And it couldn’t have been any better.

Even he hadn’t announced it, and isn’t doing it every time, after a short break, as hoped, Max came back for autographs and photos with his still waiting fans. Hopefully he’ll return soon. 🙂

Infos about Max Giesinger you can find on www.maxgiesinger.de, about Haller on www.hallermusik.de
In my youtube playlist you can watch some videos and have a listen: Max Giesinger in concert | Haller in concert