Alan Walker: Concert Review – An Unexpected Night with Many Surprises

Previously

My dear friend Lara Gutwald, who is a model in Switzerland, is a huge Alan Walker fan. He is her most streamed artist on Spotify. Therefore, she really wanted to go to his concert, which was last week on the 28^th February, in Zurich, in the “Halle 622”. She asked me several times before to accompany her, but I actually wasn’t interested, since I’m not a crazy fan of Alan Walker and I only heard his hit singles “Faded” and “All Falls Down”. Additionally, the ticket prices weren’t cheap, seat: 70 CHF and standing: 60 CHF. However, one day before the concert on the 27^th February, MTV Switzerland had a competition on their Instagram page, they gave away 3×2 tickets for the concert. Luckily, I follow them on Instagram and as soon as I saw their post, I tagged my friend, Lara, so she could also join the competition. Before 1 p.m. we would have been texted if we had won tickets or not. I didn’t win but Lara did and we both were excited about it. But there was one problem, Lara was quite sick since the weekend. We agreed that we would only go to the concert if she wouldn’t wake up with a fever the next day.

Day of the Concert

The 28^th February was a Wednesday, this means I had three lectures at the university for the entire afternoon until 6 p.m. Before meeting Lara at the central station of Zurich. I changed my clothes and got ready for the concert in the restroom. At the main station before meeting Lara I grabbed a sandwich for dinner. Afterward, we took the train to Oerlikon, where the “Halle 622” is. The door opening was at 6.30 p.m. and we arrived there at almost 7 p.m. and the queue was still very long. The security control was rather strict, we had to show the inside of our winter jackets and let them check our pockets. I also had to give away my bag, which was larger than a usual paper size. In my opinion, the security controls were adequate. It’s better to wait and have a strict security check than a terror attack (Ariana Grande – Manchester) or an irritant gas attack during the show (David Guetta – Zurich). As we were inside the hall Lara and I took our place near to the stage. The audience consisted mostly of teenagers, some of them came with their parents and some with their older siblings. But there were also a noticeable number of adults.

Support Acts

Juliander

At 7.30 pm the first support act Juliander entered the stage and started to sing and play the keyboard. It was the 2^nd time for me to see him live on the exact same stage. I also saw and met him at the Zara Larsson concert last November. But something was different this time, it was the way how the audience behaved. Most of the people didn’t care about him, a lot of chatting continued and some people didn’t even stand up for him. I just founded it very disrespectful, 1^st towards Juliander and then towards everyone else who wanted to enjoy his music. Juliander performed every song off his debut EP “After Glow”. I must admit that I wasn’t fascinated by him like I was when I saw him for the 1^st time on stage. But his high energy, sympathy and the quality of his performance was the same. It’s just another feeling and effect when you see him for the first time. He was entirely for himself onstage, therefore he played every instrument on his own. He played beside the keyboard also an electric guitar during a song and used a sampler to mix his beats. During his performance, I posted a video to my Instagram story and tagged him, in which I mentioned that I’m’ seeing him for the 2^nd time. After 20 minutes of performing, he left the stage and sent me a direct message via Instagram. So, we started to chat for a while and he invited me to the merch stand to meet him right after the concert. He actually had invited every one in the audience, who wanted to take a picture with him. But it’s an honor if he invites you personally with a message.

Julie Bergan

The 2^nd support act was Julie Bergan a Norwegian pop singer. I had never heard of her before but in her own country in Norway, she is already a famous star. She sang for a half an hour and promoted her debut album “Turn On The Lights”. Her band consisted of a drummer and of someone, who played the keys. Her performance seemed to me like a pyjama party, she danced crazy and shamelessly in her pink tracksuit. Maybe it’s just her style how to perform. I must say that I wasn’t impressed by her vocals they were rather on average. But her music is perfect to party. The atmosphere was really cool during her performance, the audience also paid more attention to her than to Juliander. But Juliander is still my favorite. During her performance when she almost stood right in front of me on the stage I screamed something like “Wooooohoooo”, she noticed me and blew me a kiss. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen the post about it in my story. In this post I tagged Julie and she also noticed me on Instagram and sent me a heart via DM.

Main Act

Alan Walker

After the support acts Alan Walker finally went on stage and played his own songs and many other hit songs for 2.5 hours. During the first song he jumped energetically on his desk and made the crowd swing their arms from left to right, he also made us jump as we were on trampolines. His high energy and the energy of the crowd remained until the end. Alan had 12 rectangular shaped tall screens with amazing visuals and animations playing behind him, placed in a half circle. His stage lightning was colorful and dazzling. As always, he wore his black hoodie and his mask, we could only see his eyes and his head. I really hoped and wished that he would take it off at the end or just as a highlight during the show, but he didn’t. He talked several times to the audience, and I clearly could hear his strong manly deep voice. He has a really deep voice!

The Surprise of the night for me was when Noah Cyrus came to the stage to perform the newest single “All Falls Down” I really didn’t expect her to show up since she lives in the USA. She was actually also on tour with Alan, but her name was nowhere listed, therefore she should be the highlight of every night of the tour. It even got better when Juliander also appeared on stage to sing his part of the song and the rest with Noah. Afterward, Noah Cyrus performed her newest single “We Are Fucked” and left the stage. Later, Julie Bergan also came back to the stage to sing the vocals of Alan’s hit song “Faded”. During the final song of the concert Juliander and Julie came back together to say goodbye, they danced and took pictures next to Alan Walker. Then suddenly we found ourselves in a shower of red confetti. Lara and I stood right in front of the left confetti cannon machine. Alan came close to the crowd and touched some of his fans and took pictures. Shortly after he left the stage the audience shouted for an encore and he came back again and continued to party for another 20 minutes.

After the Concert

After the show, we went to the merchandise stand to meet Juliander. Even though I met him for the 2^nd time I was still nervous, my hand was shaking while taking a selfie with him. He also gave everyone a signed autograph card. I could also have a little small-talk with him and I told him that I really love his new EP “After Glow” and that I’m excited about his debut album. One annoying thing was that I had a giant read confetti on my head, which stuck there all the time and I didn’t notice it before. Lara told me nothing because she enjoyed seeing me like that. #bestfriend.

To see all the photos and videos of the concert visit my Instagram accounts @erenblogs (blog account) and @erenneseli (personal, to see the pictures with Juliander and a video with Lara).

All in all, it was an amazing night I can only recommend everyone to see Alan Walker live, for now, his tour is sold out. But I’m sure it wasn’t the last time for him to be on tour. I also want to thank MTV Switzerland for the competition and Lara for choosing me to accompany her.