Walking Papers are playing at Dynamo… OK? Honestly, up until a few weeks ago, I have never heard of them. But when digging a little I found out they were from Seattle. Well, that was reason enough for me to go to the gig. And guess what… I was not disappointed – at all!
A local band from Switzerland was opening for the Seattle band. Fueled By Grace seemed to have had to show up a bit spontaneously (as they said) and unfortunately, the venue was still pretty empty by the time they started playing. That didn’t bother them much though; they did their thing and put on a decent set for the few people that were there.
Seattle Rocker in Zurich
At around 9 pm it was time for the headliner. Walking Papers find their way up onto the stage. I have to admit, the first thing I saw was guitar player Tristan Hart Pierce, who could totally go through as James Bay double (at least the James Bay from back in 2014). Not only did he look like him, he obviously is a great guitar player too. Throughout the show, he could shine with some great solos. A shame that the venue was still almost half empty 🙁 I know that for the band and probably the promoter this isn’t the best situation, but I have to say, I really enjoyed having some space to dance and that the room wasn’t as boiling hot as usual.
Let’s go hang out in the audience!
Lead singer Jeff seemed to have found a good way to deal with the gaps in the audience. During the first couple songs, he already jumped off stage and walked through the audience. It looks like he’s actually enjoying this! During the entire set, he keeps swinging his mic through the air, I honestly don’t want to know how many times he must have hit either the drums, ceiling or worse, his bandmates while practicing this 😀
While Walking Papers performed songs like „I’ll Stick Around“, „Truth „ or „The Butcher” the atmosphere seemed to get more relaxed and chill by the minute. The usually somewhat reserved Swiss audience warmed up a bit and started dancing (I might have seen a headbang once or twice ;-)). It really is sad that there weren’t more people, it was a really cool evening with great rock music… There wasn’t much talking going on in between the songs, but honestly, it wasn’t necessary and the set was still pretty entertaining. Less talking, more song – so yeah, I can totally live with that 🙂
Who even does the Encore game anymore?
After about 1.5 hrs their set was over. As so many other artists have done before, Walking Papers also gave up the encore-spiel (get off stage – wait for applause – get back on). Before performing their last song, Jeff Angell announced that the band will be hanging out at the merch booth after the show. Unlike other artists, these guys literally jumped off stage, into the crowd and made their way back to the merch corner. How cool is that? The fans certainly appreciate this. No more waiting around for hours, hoping to meet the band. Very cool!
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