How disappointed I was when the Irish band Kodaline postponed their entire European tour and canceled the Swiss concert last fall. For reasons of course. The album was not ready yet. Among other things, private events such as weddings and the honeymoons delayed its work.
After tour postponement back in Switzerland
Of course, the announcement of the Zermatt Unplugged concert was all the more enjoyable and the holidays were quickly requested. Days off in Zermatt? With Kodaline at the end of the day? Sounded more than good!
The location for this exclusive concert was beautiful. The tent foyer looked in the ruby colors with small stage, bistro and bars very classy. The atmosphere in the foyer seemed very relaxed and in a good mood. In the tent, the small pit was laid out with wood chips and all the premium seats were equipped with lambskin rugs. There was even a chandelier hanging in the middle of the tent. And at the sight of the many candles on the stage, my breath got caught for a moment. The whole atmosphere was so adorable.
Kodaline unplugged
It was great to sit in the pleasantly heated tent after an afternoon in the cold and listen to the folky, Irish sounds. Kodaline sat down at the edge of the stage for the first part of the show with an unplugged setup and started their concert with the catchy “Love Like This”. Later, as the fifth man Dave, who is now an integral part of their concerts, joined in the background. In the joy and excitement of seeing Kodaline live again, I felt a shiver down my spine.
Already at the beginning, however, frontman Steve said that unfortunately he woke up in the morning with a chest infection and that one might be merciful with him …. Oh no, again voice problems? Unfortunately, Steve also had voice problems at my last Kodaline concert in London.
Nevertheless, there was a magic in the air, which gave me goose bumps on a regular basis and audibly also delighted the spectators near my seat. It was the beautiful “The One”, the touching “High Hopes”, “The Answer” or the well known “One Day”. After some songs at the front of the stage, Vinny went back to the drums and they continued with a full program. My favorite Irish band thrilled with ballads like “Love will set you free” as well as up-tempo songs like “Raging” produced with Norway’s DJ Kygo.
New EP “I Wouldn’t Be”
Kodaline also presented some new songs. In order not to let the fans wait too long, they released last October the mini-album “I Wouldn’t Be EP” with four new songs. In Zermatt the two earworms “Brother”, that was to stay in my mind for the whole week, and “Ready To Change” made it on the setlist. Both maybe a bit more pop and with more synths than we knew on their last album “Coming Up For Air”.
New Album in 2018
So the current single “Follow Your Fire” too, with which they also presented the latest forerunner for the upcoming album. It should be released this year. After the beat and melody was never really a favorite, I liked it much better live. But my personal highlight finally followed in the encore:
Frontman Steve started the EP title song “I Wouldn’t Be” with some accompaniment on the keyboard. After a few lines, the other band members joined in accappella. This was beautifully harmonious singing to which they added their instruments only towards the end. Finally they ended the song as reduced as they had begun. It was so incredibly beautiful and pure goose bumps! To round off the whole evening, their hit “All I Want” followed, accompanied by lights, lighters and some public choirs.
Magic was in the air
To be honest, the concert was certainly not perfect for a variety of reasons, and the setlist was rather short or obviously had been shorten. But there were so many nice moments and there was that certain magic in the air … Kodaline were definitely my absolute highlight of the day. By autumn at the latest they should come back. Exact dates are not fixed yet though.
Info about the band and their tour you can find on www.kodaline.com.
Info about the festival you get on www.zermatt-unplugged.ch
