As part of the “Songpoets” evening, George Ezra was the second artist taking the stage at Baloise Session. After Jack Savoretti opened the show, the “Budapest” singer was the closer of the night. George Ezra was certainly a great choice for this evening, but did he keep up with Jack Savorettis great performance?
After a short break in order to get the stage set up, everything was ready for George Ezra. He’s an artist I’ve seen a few years ago at X-Tra and really liked him! In the meantime, he’s had a few more hits on the radio, so I was looking forward to seeing him play here. Jack Savoretti performed a great set, so I was excited to see what George had in store for us. You can find the review of Jack’s set here: Jack Savoretti @ Baloise Session.
George decided to open his Baloise Session set with one of his recent hits: „Don’t Matter Now“! George’s stage setup was a bit different and there were more people on stage for sure. A trumpet player and a trombone player were added. They both did a great job at giving George’s songs the extra kick. The audience, however, was quite reserved in the beginning. That very quickly changed when people were allowed to go to the front. As soon as us photographers turned around to leave the pit, we were almost trampled by fans running to the front 🙂 within just a few seconds the area in front of the stage was filled. George then said: “I was wondering when you would join me up here”
When people just show up for the hit singles…
During the middle part of the set, it got pretty quiet. The audience seemed to just want to enjoy the music “in silence” – or at least that is what I hope. The excitement and great atmosphere that was built up by Jack Savorettis set only lasted for the first couple songs in George Ezra’s set. George himself did a great job, his vocals were on point, so was the band. They did well. So it was a shame that the mood seemed to have dropped so drastically at some point. I guess many people showed up just knowing his singles and none of his other (great!) songs. George tried to brighten the mood with little stories in between songs. Every now and then he managed to have some people get up and dance. Before singing “Paradise”, he told us that the song was written while he was sick on a tour bus in the US – a big round of aaaawwwwwws went through the audience. The song itself brought even more people to get up and dance, yay, finally!
Of course towards the end, the big hits were coming out. „Blame It On Me“ and „Budapest“ came up and brought most of the audience to their feet. But when George started playing “Cassy’O” many people sat back down? What? Why? What is wrong with you? Well, the closing song was his recent hit „Shotgun“ – people got back up…
All in all, it was a solid show and performance by George Ezra, he has a wonderful voice, his songs are cool, catchy and well written. But honestly, I think many were just so blown away by Jack Savoretti and his energy it was just super hard to beat that. Even though George has been commercially more successful than Jack, I have to say 1-0 for Jack Savoretti! Sorry George…
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