The xx @Sporthalle Hamburg (02/12/16) - I See You

The xx is a brtisch band, formed in London in 2005. Four years later they released their debut album "xx". The band consists of the three members Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim and Jamie smith. In January the band relaesed their third album "I See You" and just a month later went on tour with it. After listening to them for about 5 years I finally got the chance to see one of my favorite indie/electro pop bands in concert, in my hometown Hamburg. 


I had been waiting for years to finally see The xx live and sadly always missed them when they were in Germany, so I was obviously more than just a little bit excited, when I got a ticket for christmas. Even though the concert took place in my least favorite venue in Hamburg, I couldn't wait and when the day finally came, the excitement grew even bigger, even though I spent almost the whole day in bed before leaving the house. 

The concert was supposed to start at 8pm, so doors would open at 6:30pm. I wanted to be front row and while laying in bed all day long, I was wondering when I should leave the house to get a front row place. I was worried a lot of people would queue for The xx, but all my concerns disappeared when I reached the venue at 5pm, after taking the train instead of the bus and then missing two busses on the rest of the way. There were between 15 - 20 people when I arrived, who would all easily make it into the front row of the venue. I was alone, since none of my friends bought a ticket, but I managed to find some lovely people shortly before the doors opened. 

When I entered the venue I immediately went downstairs, recalling all those times I had already walked down those stairs before in order to get front row. I arrived downstairs, went through one of the big doors and saw that there were barley any people in the front row yet. I went up to the people I had met outside the venue and we were just a little bit to the left from the middle of the stage and had the perfect view on everything. I couldn't have been happier. Now the waiting began. 

At 8pm the lights went out and one guy and a woman came on stage. The guy went to a DJ set meanwhile the girl went to the microphone. she started singing and due to the horrible sound in the venue you weren't able to understand a word from the first song - but what you did notice, was her strong and powerfuk voice. After the first few songs she introduced herself as "Kelela", an american RnB singer. In between her songs she talked a lot to the crowd and kept interacting with us. I would describe her music as really chilled and even though it wasn't my type of music I would highly recommend RnB fans to check her out. 

After Kelela was done performing the waiting started all over again. The crew of The xx started reabuilding the stage and slowly built up a stage set that reminded me a lot of a huge mirror. Their new album cover of "I See You" is completely silver what makes everything refelct itself in it - which is why their tour and album posters aren't completely grey or silver, but show a reflection of the band taking a photo of it. 

On each side of the stage there were two huge oblong columns, looking like huge mirrors. Four more columns were in the back of the stage, behind the DJ set of Jamie. Above the stage there was a huge mirror like square which reflected parts of the stage. The floor of the stage consistet of small transparent squares which during the show performed a small light show, while the columns moved around and alsor served for the lightening on the stage. After the incredible stage set was build up, the lights went out around 9:05pm and the whole crowd went insane from the first second on. 


The xx came on stage to six sirens, which had their places next to the DJ set rotating and making sounds. They then immediately began with one of their latest songs called "Dangerous". Everyone around me was dancing like crazy meanwhile I was feeling the music so much I forgot to sing along. No one was pushing from behind or stressing around, I had space around me everywhere and enjoying the concert from the first second on. The band ended their first song, of a really amazing setlist, and the crowd wouldn't stop cheering and clapping their hands. In that moment the faces of all three band members immdiately lit up and huge smiles appeared on their faces before the first tunes of their song "Crystalised", from their first album, came out of the speakers and the crowd went insane again, singing and dancing along like there was no tomorrow. This type of mood continued until the 8th song. 

Their 8th song was "Performance" from their latest album. Before the song bagan, one of the vocalists - Romy - said that this song had a speacial meaning to her and that it's a really important and emotional song for her. She then performed the song on her own, the spotlight focussing on her and her guitar. The whole venue went quiet and watched her perform, together with her band members. Her unique voice came through the speakers and spread something magical. I can't exactly describe what it felt like, but her all her feelings seemed to fly through the whole venue, in the sounds of her angelic voice. During her performance I clearly noticed how nervous she was but also how much it meant to her to perform this song for us and for herself and so did the rest of the crowd. After she was done performing and the spotlight turned off the crowd was cheering even more than she did before. Everyone appreciated and loved what Romy did and with how many emotions she sang that song.


The band then continued with a Drake cover before singing about 8 more songs of their own albums. It was a mixture of all albums, of new and old songs, calm and happy, energic songs and no matter what, the crowd kept cheering more and more with each song that The xx performed and the band couldn't believe what was happening. 

In between all of those songs they had a little speach and Romy told us the story behind their album name "I See You". she said that they know not everyone can see them completely from where they are standing or sitting and that sometimes they get the same feeling - that when they come on stage they aren't able to see anyone, but that they actually do. With their album name they wanted to tell their fans that they do see us and that they appreciate what we do for them. 

They continued playing and eventually left the stage, but the music didn't stop like at most other concertst. The whole stage turned into its own lightening show with a heavy beat coming out of the speakers. Everyone was clapping and cheering and begging for more songs until eventually the band came back on stage to perform their last three songs - starting with their first single off the new album, called "On Hold". Before the show a few people already distribute luminous rods to the first 50 - 70 people and when they ran out of them, they put up signs at each entrance to tell people to turn on their phone lights during On Hold and everyone did. Without the band knowing about it, suddenly the whole venue got out their lights and started lightening up the whole venue of almost 7000 people. Again those huge smiles appeared on the bands faces and they looked around for a long time before really getting into the song. The crowd and their lights were reflecting in parts of the stage set and I couldn't believe what I was witnessing. It was an incredible moment.  

The song was over and the cheering went on for at least 3 to 4 minutes before Oliver could take a moment and say something. He told us how it was only the third show of their tour but how we managed to turn it into a show they would definitely never forget because of how special we made it, because of how much passion we put into the show. He went on talking and said how with their third album something incredible happened, something they had never expected - it went up to #1 here in Germany the week it was released. In that moment the whole band started to thank us and to just smile and look at us for a moment before they started performing their last two songs - Inro and Angels. Angels has always been my favorite The xx song and I was so happy it was the last song they performed because it gave the whole show something even more magical than before already. When they were done performing, they gave away their instruments came up to the front of the stage, looked at us and bowed down, before leaving. 

The lights turned back on and the venue started playing music again and everyone kept dancing along to the music while I was on my way out. Everyone was in an incredible mood, enjoying their lives and not worrying about anything in that moment. I have never seen something similar before. 

I must say The xx totally fulfilled my expectations and even more. What they put on stage and how the crowd reacted to it was something I have never experinced before and I'm so thankful I got to see all of it happen. The band is gonna now gonna continue their European Tour for a little bit more than a month now before leaving for America and after experiencing what I experienced yesterday I'm thinking about going to another concert and I would recommend everyone to buy a ticket for one of their shows that isn't sold out yet, too, because you don't want to miss out on them!