Soon after 8, Ryan McMullan – a guy with a beautiful voice and a guitar, opens the night in ASTRA Kulturhaus.
I think this is the right time to mention that I might be too old for this type of music.
If I would’ve been 16, I think it would’ve been the night of my life. Instead, it was a 2 hours wait of long cringe moments.
Ryan McMullan, the guy who gave us 30 minutes of Ed Sheeran vibes before Kodaline, tried to prepare the audience with some cringe jokes and some blablabla with a British/Irish accent. It worked pretty well with the first 3 rows in front of the scene. The rest of the audience didn’t seem to enjoy his jokes.
At 9, finally, Kodaline comes up and obviously starts with the most popular song from the last album “Follow your fire”. The sound system was really really bad. I resist the first song very hard and then decide to go in the back, blaming the sound system. In the back, same story but only a little bit better. The night goes on with all the songs from the last album. After the third or fourth song, we finally get a Wilkommen, Berlin. The crowd goes wild. A couple from Australia, Gareth and Jill start screaming as hard as they can how much they love Kodaline and how much their music meant for them.
It felt like it was a rehearsal somewhere in an abandoned garage
Hey, Brother starts at a certain point. Again, nothing: no connection. It felt like it was a rehearsal somewhere in an abandoned garage: no emotion, too much-wasted effort and a very very generic American cliche beat. All the songs seemed the same: repetitive and written for teenage girls.
The crowd was more than ecstatic and sang along every lyric
The only highlight of the concert was the end when the band played their two famous anthems: All I Want and High Hopes. The crowd was more than ecstatic and sang along every lyric.
Overall the concert for me was a little bit disappointing. The sound system was bad and the band seemed like they didn’t want a real connection with the audience. I really hoped that by hearing the album live I’ll start loving it. Instead, I left happy that at least I heard live two of my favorites songs from them and nothing more.
