David Guetta – Concert Review

David Guetta is probably the most internationally famous DJ ever. He released 6 albums and more than 50 singles since 2001. Therefore, to see him live was on my bucket list. He came several times before to perform in Switzerland, but I never went to his concert. This time I was really motivated to see this legend live. I must say that I grew up with his hits, I love all of his songs featuring Sia, Rihanna, and Nicki Minaj. He first conquered my ears with his hit “Where Them Girls At” featuring Nicki Minaj and Flo Rida. And his newest singles “So Far Away” and “Dirty Sexy Money” are saved on my Spotify. If you want to follow me on Spotify and listen to my personal playlists, then you can find me as eren.neseli.

Before the concert

My twin sister gave me tickets as a birthday gift to the concert on 1^st February 2018, in Hallenstadion Zurich. Our lovely friend Devta accompanied us. The door opening was at 6 p.m., at 5.30 p.m. we were already standing at the queue. It was very cold we were freezing, while we were waiting outside. The security team let us in on time. Before we went into the concert hall, we made a stop at the merchandise stand. Fortunately, David Guetta has amazing merch, so I couldn’t refuse to buy a t-shirt, which cost 35 CHF. The price was rather cheap, normally t-shirts cost about 50 CHF. Apropos prices, our standing tickets coast 75 CHF each. David Guetta’s audience surprised me, I expected teenagers and young adults, who want to party. But actually the age range was between 7 and up to 70. Everyone was chilled and had enough place to dance, there wasn’t any scrambling or pushing. At least according to my observations.

Support Acts

At 6.20 p.m. we were in the concert hall right behind the golden circle, near to the stage. The first DJ Gil Glaze was already on the stage and was playing his tunes, but no one was dancing. Everyone was sitting on the floor and chatting, the hall was also quite empty at this time. At 8 p.m. the lights were turned off and the second support act Deepend took the stage. Deepend is actually a Dutch deep house DJ duo consisting of Falco van den Aker and Bob van Ratingen. But only Falco was on the stage last night. He managed to make the crowd jump with the first song he played. He was very enjoyable and a good warm-up for David Guetta. He stayed a bit longer than an hour on the stage, but it felt like 20 minutes.

David Guetta’s Performance

At ca. 9.30 pm David finally went on stage and made his opening with his hit “Bad” from 2014. The lightings and the visuals were fascinating. We could see him on three large screens. He held his first speech afterward and told us since he is a French DJ he used to play the second most shows in Switzerland when he was younger. That’s why Switzerland is almost his second home. He continued to play his newest tracks, he also gave us a preview of his upcoming single, which will be out soon.

After 40 minutes everything changed from heaven to hell. My sister, Devta and me were dancing next to each other, then suddenly the crowd to our left started running away. I couldn’t understand why. I saw Devta following them, so I grabbed her right arm and right at this moment, I realized what was happening. I started feeling it too. I couldn’t breathe anymore, I had a strong irritation of the throat, it felt like thousands of stitches in my respiratory tracts. I didn’t know why so with one hand I was holding my sister and with the other my friend and we went out of the crowd to the entrance of the hall. Not everyone was affected only 100 – 200 people. We still didn’t know what happened, David Guetta wasn’t aware of what was happening behind the golden circle, so he kept playing his tunes. And no one of the staff showed up. Later on, I talked to two older women, who were also affected, one of them told me that it was pepper spray, which made us almost suffocate for a moment. I also talked to someone of the staff right after, but she didn’t really care. I never had contact with pepper spray before and didn’t know what it can do with someone, it’s really agonizing. We still don’t know who sprayed this gas to the audience, maybe it was the security man or probably a psychopath. The only thing I know that I never want to feel like this again. This event is today in the news in Switzerland, just for the case you don’t believe me.

Afterwards, we were so demotivated that we couldn’t enjoy the concert anymore until David played “Titanium” and we started to sing and dance again. I mean we had paid so much money for this evening and we couldn’t let it be destroyed by this tragic event. David kept playing his older singles and everything was fine again. David Guetta’s energy is admirable, even though he is 50 years old, he is much better than younger DJs. He is a very charismatic person. He was smiling at the audience all the time. One thing that disappointed me was his setlist. He has so many top charting songs featuring other artists to play but during the main part, he mostly played electronic tunes without any vocals. He was on stage for 1.5 hours almost the same time as Deepend. I’d have like to have seen and heard more of him and less of his support acts. The concert lasted until 11 p.m.

This concert had its ups and downs, but overall, I could enjoy it and had a lot of fun. To see David was on my bucket list (checked) but to be sprayed with pepper spray definitely not. If you like going out to clubs or if you’re a fan of David Guetta, then you shouldn’t miss his next concert near to your town. You must see this legend live at least once in your life. If you want to see pictures and videos from the concert visit my Instagram account @erenblogs. Let me know in the comment section if you have ever seen David Guetta live on tour and what is your favorite track by him?