At the weekend Stars Of Sounds in Aarberg took place again and I could be part of it on both days. In the middle of the beautiful Aarberg oldtown summer was celebrated with great bands and music.
Differently than Friday evening Saturday was completeley sold out. Especially during Söhne Mannheim it became quite cramped and you barely could get through. Therefore and because of the tightened security controls happening at concerts and festivals since recently, discussions about security started.
How does it work, especially on a public place like in Aarberg. The controls seemed not to be done very consequent? There were differences between Friday and Saturday. Or how did you experience this? But probably you just shouldn’t think too much about about it and to rely on the security doing their jobs as good as possible. The risk to be hit on the roads or just to fall of stairs is still a lot bigger.
I started my second festival day with a delicious strawberry tart. The stand of the pastry shop seems to be there annually. Since I know that I’ll visit this year’s Stars Of Sounds, I knew I’d get one. Do you have food stands you are looking forward to at festivals?
Troubas Kater are home
This evening Troubas Kater played at home. First band rehearsal, first girlfriend: frontguy QC grew up in Aarberg. And everyone, who was at Stars Of Sound directly from Aarberg, automatically was part of his “hood”. Even I only saw the band the weekend before at Music Days Steffisburg: You can barely get fed up of Troubas Kater. Not me anyway, hehe.
The drum was stomping.Their songs sometimes simple, sometimes soulful and melancholic, then again cheeky and conspiratorial. Next to their album title song “Aber Morn” and “Bärnstei” as well as one of my favourites “Fukuglitzer Schärbe”, the Aarberg audience loved to get involved into the show.
Whilst QC rhymed a rap for the attending “Sämi” as well as combined “Seifeblattere” (soap bubbles) and “Fotzelschnitte”, the audience was yowling and cheering out of joy and delight. The concert visitors kept swaying along. “Mach Fähler” (make mistakes) the musician recommended. An elderly couple was shaking a leg to the catchy “Latvia”.
QC is grateful that they can play so many openairs this summer and the weather is going along so well. But he was convinced, even with rain, thunder or a plague of locusts the concert visitors would have come. Because it wouldn’t matter.
Goosebumps in a summer night
The band entered the stage, grabbed their instruments in the background. The six singers put themselves up at the edge of the stage. Also part of the Söhne Mannheims again was founding member Xavier Naidoo. At the beginning there were some technical problems. Luckily the were solved quickly.
I indeed felt a little “star struck” in the first moment. I had seen Söhne Mannheims live at Gurtenfestival in 2005 for the first time. Well, that’s 12 years ago. I also found the Xavier Naidoo concert at Hallenstadion in 2009 as one of the most beautiful concerts, I’ve seen so far. I am no religious nor a political person, the shows still were very touching though. Vocally and musically the concerts were impressive.
I was quite racking my brain with the headlines about their song “Marionetten” the last few weeks. The last years I obviously hadn’t paid enough attention to the band’s lyrics and doing. So I couldn’t really judge the situation. For me Söhne Mannheims always stood for the opposite of what they were accused of now. I still went to see the concert of them at Stars Of Sounds though. Checking the bands appearance. How the audience reacted and what else would happen.
With a genre mix of soul, gospel, pop, rock and hip hop Söhne Mannheims showed a variable an energetic show. The single band membmers entered and left the stage in turns. When Xavier suddenly was gone, I didn’t even realize it immediately. They are all incredible singers. The band thrilled the audience once harmonically, then again a little more aggressive with songs like “Iz on”, “Wie lange”, “Neue Menschen” or “Wir wehren uns”. For the latter one even a small dance performance followed.
Söhne Mannheims pointed out how important it was to give opinions. The Swiss actually had invented this. Besides they pled for love and equity. Otherwise the statements in-between were kept within a limit. The controversial song “Marionetten” (as expected) wasn’t even played.
The band played energetic solos. The audience was cheering euphorically, jumping and bouncing wildly. The hats went flying into the air on command. Arms kept swaying. Hits like “Geh davon aus”, with they had their breakthrough in 2000, as well as the beautiful “Das hat die Welt noch nicht gesehen” were part of the programme.
There was some kind of premiere as Xavier, in a sea of lights and with the help of the audience choir, with two of his band mates sang “Und wenn ein Lied” as a trio. Even in a warm summer night I got goose bumps then. Because of the whole atmosphere I was tearing up.
It was a beautiful, rather euphoric, but peaceful concert. Generally I still think, that Söhne Mannheims stand for love, humanity and fairness. Sure won’t just drop the topic though, to furthermore think about and trying to form my (own) opinion.
Late night show with Alvaro Soler
A little more laid back and easy-going was the final with Alvaro Soler. It was an unusual late show for the likable musician. The German-Spanish guy wasn’t sure, if this late was good for him. After all he had been playing a whole song without even noticing that the cable of the guitar wasn’t plugged in. So you couldn’t even hear it. But luckily there was another guitarist with him.
The concert started energetic. His band came running on stage, followed by him. Next to the wild percucssionist and guitarist, Alvaro seemed rather quiet. He seems to be more German than Spanish anyway. Well, not that this was bad. But have you ever wondered how he would sound with German songs?
The 26 years old brought some latin flair into the warm summer night with Spanish songs like “Lucia” or the hits “Sofia” and “El Mismo Sol”. In-between he was talking an incredibly lot. I was quite amused when he even mentioned this. He knew, that he was said to be talking a lot, but thought that wasn’t true. His friends knew though, that if he liked something, he kept saying so. Oh believe me, he liked Aarberg very much so.
He loved the weather in Switzerland. So he went on a 10mins long swim down the old river Aare. He had heard that you could even do this from Thun to Bern. Yes, Alvaro heard right. From Thun-Schwäbis off you go. Or maybe he’d dare a jump off the Kali bridge? Though, I’d rather recommend a rubber boat. But haven’t done this myself neither yet. With him I’d might sit into a boat 😉
Next to “Animal” they also played “Libre”, what he’s usually singing together with Italian singer Emma Marrone. On this evening he sang it alone. If we knew Emma Marrone here at all? The majority obviously not. I at least have heard from hear before because of guitarist Zlatko “Slädu” Perica.
In the end there was a wild drum battle during “El Mismo Sol”. Didn’t he indeed just play this a second time or did I mix up the songs? Well, the atmosphere was super calm and nice. So it actually didn’t really matter.
This were two great and variable days at Stars Of Sounds with great musical performances and vibes.
Who missed it or feels like having more of Stars Of Sounds, best goes to Murten on 7th & 8th July. Next to many other bands the wonderful Amy MacDonald, Züri West, Gölä and Kunz will be performing.
Info about the festival you can find on www.starsofsounds.ch
Info about the bands you can get here:
www.troubaskater.ch
www.soehene-mannheims.de
www.alvarosoler.com
