Already at the Bern station on platform no. 7 it was clear where the people wanted to go: Several small groups got on the train to Zurich in their Status Quo t-shirts. After my very first Status Quo concert at Seaside Spiez last year, I was so excited, it shouldn’t have been my last show of the Brits. So I was even more excited to be part of their final tour at the Hallenstadion.
The red jacket
The evening was opened by the Austrian rock band The Weight. With their own English compositions in the 60’s/70’s style, the 4 members band heated up the Zurich audience. Influences of old rockers like The Who, Rollig Stones, Led Zeppelin or Deep Purple could be recognized. Frontman Tobias danced across the stage, hit the keys, let the audience cheer and sing along. Beside howling guitars they complemented their songs with extensive instrumental parts and solos, which made the Zurich audience bop along and nod their heads. “The singer shouted “STATUS”. “QUO” the audience answered.
The in 2014 founded band The Weight released their same named debut album after some EPs in 2017 and was already on tour with big names as Foreigner, The Boss Hoss, Rival Sons or Bastille. From the beginning I was totally missing the screen. From my seat I couldn’t really recognize the band members, otherwise I would have noticed that The Weight were not completely unknown to me…
After the concert the band stood in the foyer at the merch stand, guitarist Michael Böbel in the eye-catching red jacket. The penny fell immediately: This is the band from the Summer Stage Basel last August. I had talked to Michael about the uniform jacket when he said it was supposed to stand out. I can confirm that it works. Admittedly, I didn’t get to see much of the concert at the time.
He had mentioned in Basel that they had already played some concerts here in Switzerland. So The Weight will be back in Switzerland on December 8th again and will perform at Dynamo in Zurich.
The first big concert
The vibes in the frontrow was really good shortly before the show started. While some experienced their first big concert with Status Quo more than 20 years ago, for others it seemed to be the first concert tonight: The little boy and the girl looked curiously and excitedly over the barrier with shining eyes. Their ears well protected with the big ear muffs.
Status Quo entered the stage grinning broadly and full of energy, scanned the first rows and waved joyfully to the fans to greet them. They reached for their instruments, sat down on drums and keyboard, and started with “Caroline”.
No more winter tour
In 2018 Status Quo played only reduced concerts on their current “Plugged In: Live And Rockin” tour and for the first time in 30 years there will be no more traditional winter tour. Status Quo have played over 6,000 live shows and spent almost a quarter of a century travelling. Now it’s time for a break and the Zurich concert brought forward from November is the end of the tour. But before the band went into their well-earned break, they rocked a lot again.
The experienced gentlemen continued with “Something bout you baby I like” and once again showed a lot of joy in playing – especially the almost 70 year old front man Francis Rossi. He and his band mates loved to fool around and to have fun with fans and photographers from time to time.
They weren’t very keen on talking. In between Rossi talked about his favourite meal – did he talk about Rusties or Frosties? – otherwise they concentrated mainly on their beats, on making the guitars growl and heating up the audience.
Hit after hit
With the latter they succeeded excellently especially in the back, the not totally crowded area of the standing room. During songs like “The Beginning of the end”, the Proposing-Medley or “Roll Over Lay Down” some fans used the place for swinging their dancing legs. Step by step some jumped wildly to the sound of their favorite band and really went wild. Sometimes you almost forgot the band because you watched the people dancing. Yes, young and old celebrated their favourite band.
Hit after hit followed. Sometimes it was own songs, sometimes covers by other bands. With a few changes it was about the same setlist as last year at the Seaside Festival. Apparently new in the program and a favorite of mine was the “Little Lady” sung by guitarist Richie Malone. A tribute to the late Rick Parfitt.
Bye Bye Status Quo – but not for long
At the latest on “In The Army Now” the whole Hallenstadion sang along with Staus Quo. “What ever you want” got the fans on their seats cheeringly on their feet before the band reached the end of the show with “Rockin all over the world”. But of course the encore was not missing: “Don’t waste my time” was definitely no waste of time. One would have listened to the gentlemen even longer. It was called not only “Bye Bye Johnny” but also bye bye Satus Quo then. Cheering Zurich released the band into their well-deserved break. But hey, not for too long. The first shows for summer of 2019 are already scheduled and Rossi had said in interviews that he wants to go on for a long time. The band keeps them fit.
Information about The Weight can be found on theweightrock.com.
Information about Status Quo can be found at www.statusquo.co.uk
organizer: abc production
GALLERY
