Finally I get to listen to some country music again! Darius Rucker, the former singer of the band Hootie & The Blowfish had a bunch of country music fans come together at the Kaufleuten in Zurich, while performing his biggest hits and a few great covers.

Yep, this Sunday I went to yet another concert, but not one you’d usually find me at. Even though I get weird looks for this all the time (at least here in Switzerland), here it is in written: I like country music 🙂 Being able to go see 2 great artists this past Sunday is therefore a very nice treat for me. On the list was: Drake White and of course Darius Rucker.

Drake White got Moves!

I have to say, whoever got Drake White on this tour, is a genius. It was the perfect pick to warm up the crowd. Drake White, equipped with a cowboy hat and sunglasses isn’t just a good musician, he can also shake his booty! I’m sure especially the female crowd didn’t mind that at all 😉

Gotta admit, I did not know Drake White before, so I wasn’t familiar with his songs either. But I was positively surprised, I really liked what I heard! Unfortunately his set was over after around 50mins. The stage was rearranged quite fast and was then ready for the main act.

Concert Pictures: Drake White at Kaufleuten

Technical Problems or just Nervousness?

Around 9.15p the lights went out. The singer, originally from Charleston in South Carolina, made his way up on stage. The fans were ecstatic; they had to wait for quite a while to see Darius Rucker live. They were enjoying the great music and were singing along and dancing. Over on the right side there was even a banner that was noticed by Darius Rucker. Unfortunately I couldn’t see what was on it, but the singer seemed to be happy about it 🙂

Towards the 4th or 5th song there seemed to be a technical problem of some sort. I could see Darius fiddling around with his in-ear monitors. While doing that, unfortunately he didn’t quite  hit all the notes he should have. Poor guy… I’ve been told that you’re super helpless once the in-ear monitors fail. He kept going though. Maybe it was the nerves? After all it was the very first show of the tour… Maybe the technical team wasn’t quite as coordinated yet. Whatever it was, after a while it seemed to be OK again.

A Good Song is A Good Song

That’s what Darius Rucker said half way into the show. No matter what genre the song came from, if it’s a good one, it’s a good one. And he’s totally right about that. When he started playing Garth Brooks „Friends In Low Places” I couldn’t help myself and had to scream a little on the inside (maybe not just the inside ;-)) and sing along. After all, Garth Brooks was my first “country-love”. After that song, there was quite a jump in genre. I recognized the song after only the first couple of seconds and after the first “mhhhh mhhhh’s”. But wait, is he really singing  Blackstreet’s „No Diggity“? Oh yes, he really did. And again, my little heart skipped a beat, I might have squealed  a bit and definitely started shaking my behind. I like all kinds of music, good old RnB classics definitely have a spot in my heart.

But here’s a small and shake video of the Garth Brooks cover:

Of course there would also be a quick jump to Darius‘ roots. You could tell, there were a few Hootie & The Blowfish fans in the audience as well. After singing  „Only Wanna Be With You“ the applause did increase a bit compared to the No Diggity – but yeah, maybe most people weren’t really familiar with songs from that particular genre. I guess not everyone can have such a complex (many would even say ‘weird’) taste in music 😉

Encore – Encore!

Around 10.30p Darius Rucker left the stage. But of course not without coming back for an encore… Or even 3. The first one was bound to get quite emotional. Darius told us about his mom and how she is for sure looking down on him from heaven right now. The song „So I Sang“ seems to be very dear to his heart and shows a quite vulnerable side of the singer. It shows different scenarios of his life, be it his early years as a kid, as a teenager in high school or later when he learned that his mother passed away when he was only 26. The mood got a bit emotional and the room went quiet.

This changed rather quickly when the first notes of the long awaited song „Wagon Wheel“  were played. At that time everyone was singing and dancing like there was no tomorrow. People were so happy! Now also most of the band members made their way to the front of the stage to be next to Darius Rucker for this song. They were having a great time! I love it when you can see the joy in the musicians faces. Seeing that is priceless. For me, seeing the musicians really enjoying what they’re doing, takes my concert-experience to a whole different level. My music-loving heart sure starts to beat a bit faster.

A Little Prince-Tunes Never Hurt No One

Before playing the last song of the evening, Darius reminded us about how many great artists passed away this past year. One of them was one of his big idols: Prince… So of course the show was being closed with a cover of Princes “Purple Rain”. What a great end to an even greater evening!

When leaving the venue, I looked around to see how people were reacting to the show. So many happy faces! I think the show was a success. Even though it wasn’t sold out, the room was filled quite decently and the people attending definitely had a great time. Since there aren’t too many country-concerts in Switzerland, I’m sure everyone was quite pleased and happy to have experience this great group of people up on stage. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that in the future more country singers will find their way to little ol’ Switzerland.

Concert Pictures: Darius Rucker at Kaufleuten