When it rains continuously, Schmyt creates a melancholic atmosphere, which he always knows how to break with a chatty mood.
Dark gray clouds cover the sky over Potsdam on Tuesday (29 August). Later in the evening they will break out. This gloomy and melancholic weather would hardly suit anyone else better than the self-titled “sad boy” Schmyt, who chose Potsdam to perform open air in front of 3,800 people in the wash house. We were there.
Mood-boosting support
Rain ponchos, baseball caps and hoodies hide the brightly colored faces of the fans, who are probably still thinking about the festival summer. The Schmyt supporters don’t seem to base their mood on the weather. This is already evident when the support act WizTheMc takes the stage. The rapper and singer makes a drastic but perfectly balancing contrast to the upcoming show. WizTheMc takes the stage all to itself and instantly creates a brightening mood. The fringes of his leather pants vibrate energetically to the beat. As he performs songs like “For A Minute” and “All My Friends Are Stoned,” he makes the crowd forget they’re not just there for him. A good start for an even better highlight of the evening…
Painful lines in an atmospheric atmosphere
The audience is reminded of the star of the hour at the latest when blue light continues to illuminate the stage design, which consists of a black and white sketch of an eye. And already Schmyt agrees to his first song of the evening, “Lost Love”. The singer stands close to the microphone, his blond curly hair falls low over his face and covers his light blue eyes. In his intense performance, the voice hardly differs from the studio recordings. The melancholy of the song immediately captivates people and the painful lines like “I think I lost my love this morning / Like paper cups at parties, like a bet for nothing” are shouted into the night sky by many – whether they are currently feeling the heartbreak themselves or not.
In addition to the ballads, there are also plenty of songs to dance wildly in the course of the concert – even if this is a rare commodity at his gigs, as Schmyt himself warns. By this he means, for example, the piece “Medusa” from his current album UNIVERSUM REGELT, the feature with Cro “Everything else (less in the ass)” and also the song “100 Euro” from his first EP GIFT, which surprisingly started with the theatrical Weeknd single “Blinding Lights” was remixed. The 80’s sounds get the crowd jumping XL. The stage lights change from green to red to blue…
Schmyt in a chatting mood
Between his songs, Schmyt is in a chatty mood. From time to time he tells anecdotes in his deep speaking voice about the origin of different songs. For example, the accidental observation of an extremely bored couple in the Italian Ristorante Fontana in Berlin-Zehlendorf inspired him to write his song “Evening Dresses and Pinstripes”. With the line “At the same table, but a planet away”, the singer describes the empty and dispassionate mood of the two visitors. Schmyt doesn’t lose his joking manner throughout the concert. Sometimes he celebrates his Palatinate technician Andi, who made him a protective plastic handbag for his effect devices, with a harmonizer shoutout. Sometimes the singer – who is often accused of singing his lyrics too slurred – makes fun of his own mumbling at the closing lines of “Buddy Holly”: “I don’t even know what I’m saying anymore. But when you feel it, it doesn’t matter what you sing!”
However, before too much carefree mood can arise, Schmyt brings his viewers back to his characteristic melancholy. “We’re not joking anymore, we’re deeply saddened,” the singer states wryly, alluding to the theme that runs through so many of his tracks – suffering. The first notes of “Mach Break” ring out, a feature he released in 2022 with German rapper OG Keemo. The rain is now pouring down from the sky and creating an almost epic doomsday mood. The hair of the spectators: inside soaking wet nestles around their facial features, the make-up is smeared. Everyone shouts along with the lyrics: “Last fag, first light / Dreams burst, Stuff breaks / Break up, keep nothing / Dad would be proud of me”. The actual finale, of course, has to be another intensely emotional song: “I wish you were lost” – the first song on Schmyt’s 2022 album UNIVERSUM REGELT. Then the musician disappears backstage. But only for a short time.
Continuous rain = no matter now
With the rhythmic clapping, the water splashes between the hands of the crowds. Of course, the singer can’t help but give the dripping wet crowd an encore. With the RIN feature “Gift” and the song “Keiner von den Quarterbacks” Schmyt hits the mark again. His last line for the evening is: “I won’t be here tomorrow”. True. Schmyt says goodbye to all stages to create new music. And the fans? They make their way home – maybe with pneumonia, but still with hearts that are almost spilling over.