Go then! Sold out three times in a row without the indignant crowd gathering in front of the Tonhalle and shouting “Faber raus!” chant because his texts affect someone’s sensibilities. A concert without “sacrifices”, although the Swiss singer and songwriter touches on things, attitudes and behavior that usually provoke intellectual restraint. Instead, people steam, dance and let themselves fall into a wonderfully changing mood of melancholic euphoria, in which songs like “Vivaldi” and “Wem du’s get it today” fit just as well as “Generation Youporn”, “Who can’t swim, dives” or “never again”. Because Faber – as he stands there on the stage, embedded in red plastic carnations on the floor, the wine glass in his hand, towards the end also the fag – embodies the perceived contradiction of the present.
All good but broken. The clever life on the edge of luxury, which knows the hostilities of shared freedom and tackles it with intoxicating emphasis. Faber takes positions against the stupidity of the right, against the narcissism and bigotry of the rest, and one believes this rooting uneasiness. Because he fights against it, for more than two hours with immense energy and sophisticated dramaturgy. His concert tells stories, classically bracketed by cello and piano, effervescent in psychedelic and rocking passages, hit-and-miss dalliance, with waltz time and in the Italian flow of cantautore.
Faber is the bard in front of the stage curtain, who sings to the audience’s conscience, but also the sweating rock savage, who rips off his wrong-buttoned shirt and kisses the bassist. He knows the roles, embodies them, while remaining the cuddly curmudgeon from the neighborhood in the charming and believably touched announcements. With his colorful and musically confident band, he exhausts the possibilities of a pop concert in an exemplary manner, including trombone and cello interludes. “Don’t wrinkle your face,” he occasionally sings, “because there’s nothing worth the wrinkles for.” This is not hedonism, but a call to joie de vivre from the spirit of reflected thinking. The audience sticks their smartphones on it, sends a lot of likes to friends and throws their arms in the air.