Sometime halfway into December I realized we are approaching the end of a decade (or not, depends on how you count it) and felt maybe I should do some sort of a roundup/celebration. Then immediately also realized that I have, in spite of what I consider a decent memory, no clear recollection of what I…
Category: concert photography
How a Lute Creates the World- Josef Van Wissem @ A38
The boat shimmers in the distance, neon reflections over the Danube on an eerily balmy October evening. I always feel a thrill when I get off the tram at Petőfi Híd, Budai hídfő- the name itself has become synonymous with intimations of happiness, hours of respite from the madness of our world, swaying on the…
This Fire In My Hands: Franz Ferdinand and Richard Ashcroft (Best Concerts of Sziget 2019 Part Six)
The crowd was a bit tetchy, perhaps bored, people doing the compulsory drinks and toilet rounds, the festival circuit of water in nature, from beer to stomach to mobile toilet. There was texting, snapchatting and whatsapping, modern(er) technologies replacing the desperate battle cry of ‘I am in front of the main stage where are you’…
Be the Cowboys: Jain, Years and Years, Tove Lo and Alma (Best Concerts of Sziget 2019 Part Five)
I will call this the ‘festival feel good gig’ section and will readily admit that I did not stay through all of these concerts. Except Alma’s, as I was making a political statement of sorts to pretty much no one but myself about being seriously underwhelmed by Foo Fighters and choosing ‘girly’ pop over ‘manly’…
Positive Energies: Parcels and IDLES (Best Concerts of Sziget 2019 Part Four)
If you’re looking for a grand design as to why Parcels and IDLES ended up in the same article, well, there isn’t any. Perhaps the fact that I was familiar with one song each from both bands: for IDLES, it was obviously Danny Nedelko. For Parcels, my ignorance goes deeper: I only realized I knew…
Europe Stage Exotica: Hearts Hearts and Satellites (Best Concerts of Sziget 2019 Part Three)
I’ve already written a bit about my Hearts Hearts story (because I have one) in this year’s preview post, and also about what it feels like staying in front of the Europe Stage for ‘smaller bands’, whatever that tag means- Alma started her Sziget adventure on the Europe Stage, has progressed to A38 and, if…
About a Saturday: The National and James Blake at Sziget 2019 (Best Concerts Part Two)
It was a perfect night, so I’ll start by complaining. The National had been delighting me with special posters for all their previous shows during this tour (evidence to be admired on their Instagram), they didn’t have one for Sziget. James Blake had been playing Assume Form, my favourite track from his latest album, as…
A Tale of Two Franks: Best Concerts of Sziget 2019 Part One
It all began with me not really being able to tell the ‘two Sziget Franks’ apart, making silly jokes along the lines of the bands being called Frank Turner and the Sleeping Rattlesnakes and Frank Carter and the Rattled Souls. Then, absolutely out of the blue, a friend who’d loved Frank Turner very much passed…
A Case of Scandi Happy Sad:Peter Bjorn and John @ A38
For a Saturday night with a fairly well known act, the crowd was somewhat scarce, which plunged me into an analytical mood over my beer. It may be the price of the ticket, which was above the boat’s general average for a band that has not been very much in the limelight lately. The tour…
When I Grow Up I Want To Be Neneh Cherry
In an anecdote I sometimes tell my younger friends to amuse them, a considerable part of my late childhood and early teens were spent in front of our TV set, in a sort of limbo. I would turn on MTV and wait for songs I liked. The songs that came in between were marginally interesting…
Pocket Diary Budapest 