Max Giesinger at NRJ Live Session

So we have seen Max Giesinger with his band only 3 weeks earlier in Zurich and already he was back in the country – and this time even in Bern. Fantastic! For a moment I really was gobsmacked. And esp. when I got a message by Radio Energy, that I had won tickets for their Live Session with the German musician. Oh yes, I love showcases. They are too short, but always super nice.

Tickets NRJ Live Session

With NRJ Live Session Max Giesinger and guitarist Steffen Graef ended their 2 days promo tour through Switzerland. Visiting SRF (SRF3, Hitparade, etc), with Radio 24 in a Zurich tram, in Aargau with Radio Argovia, and where else they’ve been, they promoted themselves. YES! Finally they are starting out in Switzerland too. We’ve sure been waiting for this long enough. In Germany they are already celebrated for quite a while.

The NRJ Live Session took place at Club Rondel in Bern. A small club just around the corner of the train station, where 400 winners fitted in. Small and intimate. Well, a few weeks before in Zurich it hadn’t been much bigger. We got to savor this now. It can go faster than we like til he might suddendly play at Hallenstadion. We’ve seen this with Andreas Bourani.

After a short trailer and the announcement of the presenter, Max and Steff, both with accoustic guitars, started the showcase on the small round stage, surrounded by a very mixed audience. After a small welcome, “Kaliforinen” followed first. They also played “Vielleicht im nächsten Leben”, before they already announced their hit “80 Millionen”, Steff sat down behind the keys for. They played the for Switzerland matching “8 Millionen” version though, the number of course related to the inhabitants [you can watch the video here].

During the concert Max introdueced himself in detail to the Bernese audience. He found out, that only very few present spectactors had been at the Zurich concert and most saw him now live for the first time. After Abitur – Matura in Switzerland – he first was travelling through Australia and New Zealand and was on the road as a street musician. Back home he was giving guitare lessons, played at weddings next to it every now and then. It’s when of course the story about the bank apprenticeship, he started at request of his mother and had ended it after 2 weeks already, couldn’t be left out. “Either he did learn that very well by heart or it really happened like that” my friend was laughing. Well, however it’s good he put everything into music in the end.

Max Giesinger is writing and playing wonderful pop songs, he’s telling stories with. Often about love and broken relationships, but also about not giving up and to believe in oneself. “Alles auf Anfang” or “Die guten Tage strahlen” are such ones. They played songs from his both albums “Laufen lernen” as well as “Der Junge, der rennt” and was introducing the new single “Roulette”. It was already played by SRF3 in the morning. Have you heard it? Sure, without complete band the show was more quite than the tour concert, but beautiful.

Have a listen to the new single “Roulette”

Beaming over the whole face Max was gushing about Switzerland between the songs. Even they had been working the two days, it felt here like holidays to them. We Swiss were living like on holidays. He loved the food, what was a lot better than in Germany and everything was more stylish. The whole facilities and even the toilets, where you could sit the whole day. Concerning food, I actually felt last summer in Germany like in the land of milk and honey though. Haha. So much food for little money, and with different things.

Besides Max was also taken with the word “Chuchichäschtli”, that he has learnt deliberately. He just improvised it on keys as a song. “Chuchichäschtli” would also go very well with melodies like Celine Dion’s titanic song, what he explicitly showed to us. Both, but esp. Max, are not only great musician and singers, but know how to entertain. They kept communicating with the audience, everyone got involved, even the ones on the VIP gallery. With their likable manner they quickly had young and old on their side.

Like already in Zurich Max begann singing a short medley [Video hier] on the keys, this time including Robbie William’s “Angel” as well as Michael Jackson’s “Earth Song”. Of course the audience as a choir. His own title “Nicht so schnell” followed. With the actual radio hit “Wenn sie tanzt” the showcase too soon came to an end then.

Of course they weren’t let go just like that and got applauded and whistled back euphorically for an encore. The cover “Dancing on my own” was the first encore. Wasn’t this the cover, they had played at SRF3 in the afternoon? Worldpremiere, as if… 😉 And whilst they ended the evening in a sea of lights with “Für immer”, we wished, they simply would stay.

*… du hast gesagt du bleibst für immer, ein ganzes Leben lang, ein ganzes Leben lang…*

With the promise to already be back with the autumn tour, the both of them took their leave. Most left to go home then, but we kept waiting for a moment. Possibly he’d come back for autographs and photos like in Zurich. And we didn’t wait in vain…

Infos and tour dates of Max Giesinger you can find on www.maxgiesinger.de. More about the Live Session you can find at Energy HERE