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Daughtry / Sinplus

14. March 2014, Z7 Konzertfabrik, Pratteln, Switzerland (Photos by Sandy Mahrer on Flickr)

Honestly, a week ago I did not even know that a band Daughtry exists. But as I am open for new things and I appreciate the opening act – which I have never seen live before – I just have to visit Z7. Expecting 300-400 people, I was surprised to see about 1200 at the club – therefore the headliner must have gathered a lot of fans in Switzerland, but some surely came for the openers too.

Sinplus
are the 2 brothers Gabriel and Ivan Broggini from Tessin, who participated the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest for Switzerland and keep attracting fans since then. 2 months ago their second album „Up To Me“ came out and this is only their second show since then, last week they opened for The Pretty Reckless in Zürich. 30 minutes playing time is not much but still a chance to play in front of a bigger audience. They give it all right away, and astonishingly Gabriel sounds exactly like on the CD. The brothers jump around on stage a lot, and their energetic show is inspiring. The bass player and drummer have troubles to keep up with them. The Sinplus songs seem cheerful but also deal with serious matters. Those 2 have a lot of fun on stage, which is pretty obvious. A refreshing sight after all those grim Metal acts who rather focus on their macho-attitude on stage. Those 2 are still quite humble despite their success and even try to communicate in German. I could have watched 1-2 h more of their show, Sinplus is a band that deserves big success.

Daughtry

After a longish changeover Daughtry finally enter the stage, the band of Chris Daughtry, who ended up as 4th in the fifth round of American Idol and immediately got signed by a label after he dropped out of the contest. In the meantime his 5th album is out and his songs are even played on Swiss radio. While Chris is a showman, his fellow musicians seem rather stiff, with the exception of the drummer – they could have been replaced by robots. Chris Daughtry convinces with his clear high voice, and he definitely is a good singer, but I have to say that his vocal lines sound way too similar, which gets on my nerves quickly. You get the feeling that you heard the same song already, not once but several times. Despite a lack of variety – which might also be caused by the setlist choice – the fans seem to enjoy the gig and the singing along. Later the ladies can enjoy frontman Chris in close-up, when he dives into the crowd. In my opinion Daughtry are way too smooth, therefore my excellent mood after Sinplus decreased.

Show-wise and musically Sinplus were the band of the evening, in my opinion, and would deserve the highest marks, whereas Daughtry were only average.

Contributors

Sandy Mahrer

Fresh Act editor, reports, reviews, photos - - - Favorite genres? - Hard Rock, Heavy Metal and Pop-Rock etc. Less Death, Black, Grind Core