The German band Giant Rooks stopped at Max-Schmeling-Halle in Berlin, Germany on October 17th, 2026, as part of their ‘If Heaven Exists, This Might Be It Tour 2026’. The show followed the release of their album IF HEAVEN EXISTS, THIS MIGHT BE IT the previous day on Friday, October 16th, 2026. This begged the question: how would fans react to songs that had only been released the day before? The answer is simple: they knew and loved them.
The show was opened by Sarah Julia, who put the crowd in a great mood with beautiful songs ahead of the main act of the night. Giant Rooks’ own set started off with the band playing an intro and the first song behind a curtain. The tension was building up until the curtain dropped and the crowd could finally see the band. Giant Rooks then continued with ‘Blood On The Dashboard’, a highly anticipated track from the new album, which conveys important political messages.
They continued mixing fan favourites like ‘New Estate’ and newer tracks. The crowd knew the record and sang along to new songs as well as old, making it impossible to tell which songs they’d known for years and which had just recently been released. The setlist changes from night to night. Berlin got to hear ‘For You’, a song that the band hadn’t played often yet. They did play it in Hamburg the night before, but they simply enjoyed it so much that they felt it was necessary to play it again. They also included a cover of ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ by Oasis. The night ranged from emotional moments to jumping, dancing and clapping.
The show included a section on a B-stage, which was decorated with a lantern. The band surprised the crowd by walking through the middle of the room to reach the second stage, where they played a few songs. This included ‘What I Know Is All Quicksand’ and ‘Parachute’, a song from the new album. Both of these songs featured the crowd putting up their flashlights, creating a closer and more intimate atmosphere, even in a venue of this size. On the way back to the main stage, a montage of old video footage was projected onto the backdrop of the main stage. It started off with the band members as children and ran all the way to today before the screen showed the text “forever grateful”.
At some point during the night, sunflowers had also appeared on stage. Another special moment was the performance of ‘Morning Blue’: the whole crowd crouched down, and when everyone jumped up, confetti went off. Berlin was also awarded a special guest when Giant Rooks was joined by French singer Solann for a performance of their joint song ‘The Waves’. Towards the end of the show a fan took advantage of a quiet moment to scream “wir lieben euch” (German for we love you). The band played their song ‘Somebody Like You’ with a performance including pyrotechnics. This seemed like the grand finale of the show with the members exiting the stage, but Berlin was awarded an encore to keep the night going. When Giant Rooks came back to the stage, they only had one very sensitive microphone left. The members gathered at the front of the stage and were joined by the support act Sarah Julia. Together they sang ‘The Big Night Out’, also a track from the new album, with just acoustic guitars. To conclude the show this was followed by two fan favorites: ‘Wild Stare’ and ‘Watershed’. For ‘Wild Stare’ the band’s lead singer Fred Rabe was given decorated glasses by a fan that he put on before jumping into the crowd to sing the song surrounded by fans before returning to the stage. ‘Watershed’ was the big finale of the night. The atmosphere was electric, and the fans were surprised with more confetti, as well as Fred joining the crowd again, this time on the side of the venue.
This marked the end of a two hour set that had something for everyone, no matter if they’re a new fan or been there for years. If you got something to drink you were surprised once again: even the cups were specially made for the show with album branding. All in all, the evening was a great celebration following the album release. It was clear that everyone in attendance had an amazing time, and that the band is “forever grateful”. It was definitely a night to remember and it’s safe to say that a Giant Rooks show is well worth attending and who knows: if heaven exists, this might be it.
