Openair Bischofszell

Hi There,

the festival tour has started tonight; we played at Openair Bischofszell, which is Switzerland's oldest festival! Thankfully, the weather was really good - pretty unusual for this festival... However, we had great fun tonight. I was a bit worried as my guitar caused some problems during the soundcheck. For some reason there was not much signal coming from the acoustic guitar, which is strange, as it worked this morning. Technology is a strange thing... We played at a festival called HonkyTonk a few weeks ago and between two songs my guitar fell on the floor. It was still working, but I had to bring my baby to a doctor, as it could have got worse.

Anyway, we really enjoyed the show tonight; even though it was hard to get a connection to the audience at the beginning. I'm always surprised how important the energy of an audience is. It took a while until I felt the energy. Weird enough, I felt it during the song "Three Feathers". We've played it for the first time in a new arrangement and Claudio wrote a beautiful piano solo for the end part... I remember playing this song at Keller der Rose in February 2013. There is something in this song that makes me happy, that makes me feel comfortable. I didn't know that when I wrote it.

I also wrote new lyrics for "The Whole World". This song is one of the oldest songs that we still play; I think I wrote it in 2007, not quite sure though. It is a song about growing up; a juxtaposition between feeling free and being worried about what is to come. Tonight, I "celebrated" the 10th anniversary of me being a rock musician. 10 years ago, 24 May 2004, I went to see Peter Gabriel at Hallenstadion in Zurich. I had no idea who he was, my brother asked me to join him and I knew he had an amazing visual show. We were right in front of the stage and after the first song his big blue eyes looked at me... It was exactly this moment when I knew that I would have to write rock music. Actually, if I didn't go to that show, so many things would be different... So many people I would not know, so many places I would not have seen. Peter is not only an amazing musician, but also a great human being who has supported me a lot. I dedicated tonight's "The Whole World" to him and sang about seeing him in 2004 and how he changed my life.

I think it was a really good start of the festival season and I'm looking forward to the forthcoming shows. I hope to see some of you somewhere on the road...

All the best, Gion x

SETLIST:

1. A Better Day 2. Shadow Man 3. Crowded Room 4. Healing of the Soul 5. The Stranger 6. Red Right Hand 7. Three Feathers 8. Where are you now? 9. Down 10. Cascade 11. The Whole World 12. No Control 13. Don't Look Back 14. Sin City 15. Tantalos 16. Man in the Middle 17. The Weeping Song