Mascotte is a cosy small venue in Zurich, where there are no boundaries between the audience and the artists and therefore the atmosphere is intimate.

7:45pm – 8:10pm

Hong

This young Swiss artist has a truly beautiful deep voice which seems to come out from the fifties. Alone on stage with his guitar, he swaps from a falsetto accompanied by the gentle picking of the chords to his round and deep voice with more powerful riffs.

Although I have a preference for the deep version of his voice, which gives you the chills, the changing from one to the other is beautiful.

 

8.40pm – 10.10pm

The Paper Kites

Australian indie-folk band The Paper Kites is back in Zurich after three years to unveil the two new albums they released in 2018, On The Corner Where You Live and On The Train Ride Home.

Some of their songs have a more pop/rock touch with the synth set in a certain way as well as the recurrent theme of love, whereas other go deeper into the exploration of sounds and harmonies of indie-folk. Between riffs, beats and harmonies the band manages to create positive vibes.

Singer Sam Bentley asks that all the lights be turned off for the upcoming song, he says that the band always plays it in the dark. The gentle picking of the guitar reveals the opening notes of “Arms” in all its beauty. I shut my eyes for a moment, as the singer suggests, and I’m wrapped by the magic sounds created with the instruments and the harmony of the voices in unison.

To introduce “Bloom”, The Paper Kites’ best known song up to date, the singer tells the audience that when he goes to a concert he feels self conscious and doesn’t sing but says that this is the proper moment to sing along. He gets the first chords on the wrong tonality but pianist Anna notices it straight away, and he changes the position of the capo. But no worries, because the audience forgets as soon as the proper notes are played. Starting very softly with the singer’s voice accompanied by the guitar and piano, slowly the sound starts to build up and the intensity increases when the drums pop in, with its loud and repetitive bang. The public starts to clap their hands to the rhythm of the drums and resume once the band continues singing and whistling.

The Paper Kites also play an acoustic song for which the four members form a semi circle around the singer who embraces his guitar. They create beautiful harmonies with their voices in unison. It’s an intense moment full of emotions that can be grasped with the hands.

They leave the audience of Mascotte with a “Cheers”, thanking them for coming along on a Wednesday night!

 

Simona @TakeMe2aConcert