Best Concerts of Sziget 2016 #1: Editors

I could theoretically come up with a spectacular and convoluted story about how I spent more of those restless nights musing over whom to place at number one, preparing sophisticated charts, organizing one woman brainstorming sessions and using state of the art data analysis apps to weigh the pros and cons of each performance. I could- but I don’t want to, nor is it necessary. In the manner of Roman armies certain of their undisputed and indisputable victory, Editors came, saw and conquered.

The oft reviled programmer also understood the importance of their arrival, and placed them in the star spot of the A38 schedule- this also meant that they went against a main stage headliner, the identity of whom turned out to be frankly irrelevant, though I do know it was Manu Chao because poor man popped up on the list of acts I would grandly ignore for the Editors that night. For you see, they had visited Budapest during the previous winter and were superlative so I had no doubts about which fence I’d be glued to come 10 pm.

Yes, I did that too. That groupie thing of squeezing right to the front- it was Tom Smith’s hand calling me and nothing could stand in its way. The lights go off, the band comes on stage, the air vibrates and you crush my bones into glue, he says, I’m the saddest and happiest glue alive, I think. The fever I feel, the fake and the real, he goes on, and I wonder has there ever been a more perfect opening song than No Harm. Everyone else tries to go for the majestic, the grand, the upbeat- what use are those when you can simply melt people into a delighted dark puddle of feelings which will sway with your songs till the very end.

Here comes Sugar, their happy song, the one about how it breaks my heart to love you, later on there’s the one about how I’m yours to dissect- just how on Earth did they assume naming a track Formaldehyde would work and yes of course it does, you even start seeing the grand implications of it. The whole thing could be dismissed as a gimmick, tortured art school students wallowing in all the pain of the world, we have seen how many of those bands were born out of Joy Division’s ashes in the noughties and we have seen them recede into the irrelevant as well.

Some haven’t- they grew older, they became better and along the way we realized together the world is still a messed up place, if there really was a God here, he'd have raised a hand by now, but he hasn’t so we might as well make the most of it without him, even with that grand weight of the world, and the weight of love on our shoulders. Going to concerts is essentially trying to find temporary respite, a way out of your realities and into a world where we can exorcise the ache by singing about it, many many single lonelinesses coming together, in a darkened tent, for one night. But somebody needs to guide us there, and that’s a hard feat if there ever was one. It is also a feat that the Editors can pull of- I would lie if I said without the sweat of their brow, and it would also be unjust, because, after all, the beauty is always in the struggle. 

Best Concerts of Sziget 2016 #2: The Last Shadow Puppets

For about five fractions of a second I was planning to pen a super objective review which would make no reference whatsoever to the slightly subjective points below, but there’s absolutely no fun in that so I gave up immediately and I will therefore, in random order, very much insist on:

• how in my (not so humble) opinion Alex Turner is by far the best song writer of his generation, both when it comes to melody and lyrics. I sometimes spend restless hours, days, weeks trying to decide which he does best, I re-listen to the entire Arctic Monkeys, Last Shadow Puppets and solo catalogue and then give up and listen to the whole thing all over again just for fun.
• how in my (not so humble) opinion having them play from 7 PM was frankly ridiculous- also, newsflash this is the last time I complain about programming for a few months, time to be either very sad or very jubilant- but they made the best of it because they’re cool like that coastal air which gets girls to reflect.
• how in my (not so humble) opinion there are few things more entertaining in today’s music than these two guys posturing, bromancing and referencing whatever cultural tidbits caught their eyes as of late. They are taking not taking themselves seriously very seriously indeed. (This sounds almost as muddled as an Alex Turner award acceptance speech, I am clearly under the influence here.)
• how in my (not so humble) opinion that silk dressing gown Miles was wearing was extremely fetching and made you want to own it,  wrap yourself in it, recline on some decadent sofa in a seaside villa and sip whiskey while waiting for Alex to write that next perfect song of his.
• how in my (not so humble) opinion after several days of being treated to lip syncing divas, soulless thumping and oversophisticated performance acts it was refreshing bordering on redemptive to have some people come with a real band, complete with strings and all, and really excited background singers too. There was that one guy reaching fits of delighted hysteria in a spotless suit as Alex and Miles were making joint love to the microphone stand, and honestly, can you blame him? Of course you can’t.
• how in my (not so humble) opinion those fireworks lying in wait for the end show were on the verge of blasting off each time Alex was wielding his guitar dangerously close to the edge, but politely refrained because they did not want to ruin his hair.
• how in my (not so humble) opinion I have rarely seen so many happy to ecstatic grins in the audience at a Sziget concert, also, the crowd was absolutely ridiculously well mannered,  politely dancing around your glass of cider (which you otherwise completely foolishly placed on the ground) so as not to tip it over and moving sideways to allow you to focus your shot. That’s what it’s like when a rascal and an arctic monkey play at being gentlemen and it rubs off.
• how in my (not so humble) opinion there’s nothing wrong with Alex Turner looking plast..I mean, moderately confused on stage. The whole business of modern pop and rock music is basically a surreal fever dream, any person in their right mind will either go totally bonkers or become just odd enough to remain sane. 
• how in my (not so humble) opinion it was a pretty nice touch to have Budapest written onto the drum kit, testament to at least someone in the crew being aware of where in the world they happen to be playing and why. The next natural step would be to realize it went down gloriously well, come back, and do it again. 

Best Concerts of Sziget 2016 #3: Aurora

It’s of course easy to say that when you’re stuck somewhere in a Norwegian fjord, where for the better part of the year it’s either rainy, misty, snowing, or a fortuitous combination of all three, there’s not much to do, so perhaps you start dabbling with some creative enterprise at an age where children blessed with milder climates will still be sorting stones by the river or cohorting with imaginary friends. Though of course you can cohort with imaginary friends in a snowed in cabin as well, but I hope you can nevertheless get my point.

However, I do have this eerie feeling that if I were spirited away to said fjord, at any age, I would probably just stare dumbstruck into the distance- provided there’s enough visibility to do that, and sleep healthily when there isn’t. So it is still quite impressive that young Aurora Aksnes decided it’s time to write some songs at the tender age of 9, and released her first record before turning 20.

Her allocated time slot on Sziget was the dubious early one in A38, which can basically go any which way, depending on who owns it, and could have been caused either by her still being less known in wider circles or more probably by the fact that Norwegian forest elves are pretty awesome at any time of the day. Actually, I’ve recently developed the theory according to which the programmer is actually playing some sort of sophisticated bingo and probably wears a smug smile when something really weird comes to pass.

Coming back to our own pack of sprites, try as you might resisting temptation, there’s just too big a number of Scandinavian stereotypes you must tick with Aurora: she is an elfin blonde girl playing atmospheric yet eerily catchy electronic music with subject matters ranging from running with wolves and winter birds to the more Norse marauder preoccupations of conquerors and warriors. At least she’s Norwegian, which is way more exotic than being a Swede, the amount and catchiness of their musical output being outright scary- I guess there’s a large chunk of the population spending their days first flawlessly assembling IKEA furniture within minutes and then writing the next chart topping belter. 

I confess to having had a small concern as to whether her live performance can carry the same kind of slightly gloomy electric charge of her recent record, but for once my worries proved unfounded- Aurora has a way of being both very present and very distant during the show, eternally surprised that people have turned out for her at all but also equally confident in her delivery.

For an artist with but one album, the set feels even and well balanced- it’s almost as if the fact that none of her songs have become ridiculously popular works in her favour, highlighting the value of each track and the cohesion of the entire performance. It’s probably still a bit early to tell what the future holds for Aurora, but it might be something akin to those mornings when the mist lifts over those now oft mentioned fjords: the horizon suddenly looks ridiculously bright and promising.