Before we even start, here is a little something I wrote last year, and the same disclaimer applies this year too. This account is personal and subjective, and means no harm to your favourite band/artist if I happened not to vibe with them. Feel free to enjoy the photos. And dislike my favourite bands, if…
Tag: concert
Visiting an Awkward Friend- A Weekend in Bucharest
The flight from Budapest to Bucharest is a brief one-hour affair- hardly has the plane reached cruising altitude that it starts to descend towards the south Romanian plain. Yet, for years, a direct connection failed to take root. More precisely, Tarom, the Romanian national carrier, did have a daily connection, but prices for flights flown…
Through Our Lenses: Sziget 2024 Days 1&2
We’ll start with a disclaimer, and a metaphysical observation of sorts: this year, increasingly often, I felt that a band/artist sounds like a tweaked version of someone else, or a mate remarked on the same. Therefore, we undertook some Pilsner imbued thinking on why this is the case. Arguments being brought up were the scary…
Finding Ways Out: Editors at Sziget 2024
When drawing up lists of favourite shows at festivals, people tend to end up, unsurprisingly, with their favourite band on top. It’s the nature of the festival beast: you’re more than often buzzing around like a bee in search of the most delicious musical nectar, and, when discovering something that sounds fresh, might still move…
A Good List Goes a Long Way: 2019 Edition
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…
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’…
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…
Pocket Diary Budapest 