Best Concerts of Sziget 2016 #10: Róisín Murphy and Bastille

Last year I began the best concert countdown with the remark of how strong the line up was, so this year, for a change, I'll whine a bit. An activity which can be strangely energizing, as a matter of fact, just like reviewing a bad concert is often more satisfying than doing the same with a good one. It allows you to reach cathartic heights of unleashed passions, hatred, contempt, disdain, all mixed up in a cocktail of happy release. Good concerts, on the other hand, often leave you in a kind of contented stupour and you end up articulating sophisticated, nuanced thoughts along the lines of OMG that was so damn NICE.

So back to the whining then and here it goes: this year's Sziget had an army of average concerts and very few spectacular ones. Before jumping into the thick of it, I will indulge in another favourite activity of mine, namely breaking down numerical data: during the festival's 7 days I made it to 39 concerts where I spent enough time to be able to pass judgement on the performance. As possibly interesting information, given how many people complain about the surging cost of Sziget, calculating an average of 5.000 forints per concert (though some acts like Rihanna and Muse would have probably cost at least four times that much), the 'worth' of my concerting only is 195.000 forints, more than double the price of a seven day camping ticket, which includes accommodation as well for those who want it. I rated all these concerts on a scale of 1 to 10, with most scoring between 5 to 7. From those who made it to the final list, a few are more spectacular sevens, the rest scoring 8 or above. 

Since no main stage headliner made it to the top ten, I will say a few words about the two which a lot of people would probably place there. After a week of musing on the subject, I decided not to really like Muse after all, my complaints being those already voiced immediately after the concert. There were just too many guitar solos, too much operatic intent, and too much Queen feeling- while this might also sound unorthodox, Queen are Chinese torture to me, a song like Bohemian Rhapsody being the soundtrack of my own personal hell. A hell where too many things are happening musically, all at once. And that is exactly how Muse start to feel like as of late. 

My objection to Sia, on the other hand, is that nothing was happening musically. It was a wonderful contemporary dance performance, with a bit of method acting thrown in, her songs themselves are ridiculously catchy, her voice is lovely too- but all of that still doesn't make a concert, especially not a festival concert. Without live instruments Sia's stillness in a corner of the stage made me feel duped- not like the Israeli audience who demanded their money back, but duped nevertheless.

Having gotten over these thorny matters, let's get it on with the two acts at number 10, I decided that the position would be shared again, since Sziget is not only the island of freedom, but that of kindness and generosity as well. Róisín Murphy, though not averse to wearing wigs, is by all means the anti-Sia: she loves to be on stage and to put on a show. During her midnight performance in A38 she went through numerous wardrobe changes, in a sort of cooky electro cabaret. This resulted in the fact that, although I am not particularly well versed in her catalogue and she doesn't have any songs which are true festival belters, she kept me involved with what was happening on stage from the first to the last song. This last song having that Sing It Back bit which so many in the audience were waiting for- but I'm being a nihilist again, and will confess to hating it, so I was pretty happy it didn't really get center stage. I was also recently informed that Róisín's first costume, which I assumed to be some horned creature, is actually a flamingo. I consider this wonderful trivia and a very fitting way to sum up the Róisín Murphy experience.

The other act at number ten are Bastille- and yes, I am completely surprised by this myself. Two years ago they were stashed into the cathartic bad concert category and I had horribly unkind words about them. But apparently people change, and either Bastille got considerably better both at writing music and playing live, or I became a better person. So yes, it's the first. Since they are approaching the release of their second album, planned for September 9th, they now have enough tunes for a more muscly set and lead singer Dan Smith seems to have finally found both the rhythm of his dance moves and the way to connect with the audience- a lot of on stage banter seems to be done on auto pilot, more out of boredom than actual desire to connect with the crowds, but he came off as genuine throughout the set. I have also had the epiphany of how some of their songs, namely the hits, are indeed catchy and genuine festival material, the kind of tunes which induce a giddy feeling of contentment with being in the hot dusty now of an August sunset. 

There Will Be (No) Miracles Here- Sziget Day One

Arriving on the Island at noon has the perks of absolutely no queue at the entrance- there is already a rather sizable queue at the Luminarium though, which we've had to pass on for the past years for exactly the aforementioned reason. So little time, so much to do, we quickly trudge by the French camping and witness what might or might not be a wake up group yoga practice and then arrive at the Lightstage which intriguingly enough has three shows in the early afternoon, then a big siesta followed by a DJ set around midnight. The act we are there to see are Tomma Alistar and they have a pretty neat crowd given the time slot, helped along by the cozy surroundings, freshly resplendent midday sun, proximity of Italian food and last but not least the fact that they are pretty good themselves, delivering the perfect chill out music for those assembled to rest out the toils of the previous night (Rihanna's dirt brown hoodie now a distant horror from a past you'd rather forget) and gear up for the day to come. 

The day to come is however slow to start, so we have plenty of time for a little voyage of discovery into corners of the island situated outside of the usual Bermuda triangle of Main Stage- A38 Stage- World Music Stage. First up is the NGO island, where we are happy to see the rabbi still dispenses useful advice for ten forints, then we touch down at the Magic Mirrors venue, which is pretty packed for an afternoon film showing, while in the Colosseum people are still dancing like it's 3 AM- which is most natural since to some Sziget is one whopping week long 3 AM. Those who feel ready for something more challenging are absorbed in the kind of Art Zone activities that require the talent, ability and skill which we utterly lack, so we're on to the Sziget beach, which is the place to lounge if you're a baby sloth disguised as a Szitizen. Sadly this year the Danube's level is too high for an actual beach to be set up, but there are still plenty of people loitering around Cöxpon's bean bags. 

Back in A38 there are a lot of French people to welcome Jain- the festival's organizers do strive each year to bring several acts from the countries providing the largest numbers of foreign visitors, but we're happy to say Jain's world music infused Gallic pop is enjoyable regardless of nationality. She also gets bonus points for being a captivating presence although alone on stage with a synthesizer, where she must however feel a bit lonely since she closes the show by taking a ride over the crowd in a giant bubble.

Next up in front of the main stage, the only time of the festival when waving a giant flag of whatever in front of your stupefied neighbours definitely won't get you labelled as a dickhead, because we're having the now traditional 7 PM fiesta. This year's flags come in some brand new fashionable colours (I am totally in for the mint green one) and then we're all set for Bastille. Though that might be an overstatement, since the last time they graced the island we were not at all enamoured by them and have not spent any considerable length of time since trying to like them. Bastille, however, seem to like playing Sziget and as the gig progresses we come to the slightly shocking conclusion that their charm campaign worked and they might just have grown on us. I am therefore typing this to the sounds of Things We Lost in the Fire, one of those things apparently being a dislike for Bastille. However, given that I am misanthropic enough to need a nice healthy dose of hatred and disdain, I will now be looking for a new act to utterly dislike, and David Guetta is just way too easy as a target. The challenge is on. (Because this bit of the review is totally subjective, be informed that Bastille are from England. play a sort of indie and their second album is due to be released this autumn.)

The headline slot of the island is shared by regulars across the Bermuda triangle: Manu Chao is due on the Main Stage, the World Music Stage re-welcomes Goran Bregovic while Editors are on in A38. Schedule clashes are always an occasion for some exasperated Sziget eye rolling, so another item can be ticked off this year as well, and some of us, namely the writer of this piece, now in the run up to some gushing about Editors, make the decision to go for A38. Editors have of course played Barba Negra last December, and I can think of several nice slots in the city where the could play next December, and many Decembers after. The set is not much changed, nor the delivery, and most of the things I wrote in last year's review apply to this concert as well- out of all the bands I love (not all that many) Editors are probably the only one whose shows never disappointed me. I can even say that I only really jumped on their bandwagon after seeing them live and they are among the elect few who still make me push and shove to the front row mouthing the lyrics I've heard oh so many times. Also, I will here mention Tom Smith's hands. Just for the record. 

Also for the record, those of us who are not me and boldly decided to stay at the main stage claimed in unison that Manu Chao was great, although without being very articulate about it or further elaborating. However, given the fact that none of them would necessarily be Manu's core audience, I can safely assume that he put on a great show- of which ability I myself had been convinced all along, but hard Sziget choices are hard and I can only hope for a friendlier schedule next time he returns. 

We closed the day with UNKLE, who performed the feat of being to the liking of pretty much everyone in our group in spite of a rather divergent array of musical tastes. My track record with them is somewhat similar to that of Editors in that I started listening to them much more intensely after seeing them live- on Sziget, of course, in an earlier iteration of the A38 tent, which was white and square, and reminded me of those used back in the day for traditional village weddings. Today's A38 is a brilliant red eye candy, but never mind the tent, UNKLE can still pack some elemental punches into their track- if the other day I was talking about electronic music with a heart, well this one is electronic music with guts. 

I Know What You'll Be Listening to Come August

I might as well start this year’s second Sziget line up review with the same world altering concerns I had last year: the day 0 headliner and the knob fiddler of the end show. So the fiddler is Dutch, who would have thought- there is something super rotten in the kingdom of the Netherlands, and they seem to be producing these absolutely average but ridiculously successful one man acts like other countries make chocolate rolls. Don’t really know how chocolate rolls popped into my mind first, but they seem vastly more entertaining than Hardwell- for that is the man’s name, and with this off my chest, I shall approach the next subject, namely that of Rihanna.

She’s the face majestically staring off into the distance over Margit bridge on the festival’s biggest poster, so we can safely infer she’s therefore it’s biggest star. There’s really no need to argue with that, what certain people argued with is whether Sziget needs such a big star at all. On the day of the announcement Facebook was flooded with posts of how people either thought this is the end of days, or described the speed with which they snapped up their ticket to her show.

On the one hand, Sziget is a big happy place, and can fit both Rihanna and semi unknown acoustic acts, on the other hand, one cannot but think at how many lesser, but festival friendlier acts could have been signed with the same undisclosed amount of money. Rihanna’s fans aren’t necessary the festival going type either, though presumably her presence will give day 0 a whiff of Coachella, which is not necessarily a whiff I’m particularly fond of when foreign influences are concerned.

Luckily, there’s plenty to see and listen to if you’re feeling a bit ANTI- yes, that is a bad joke and I apologize, but sometimes I can’t help it, just like Noel Gallagher couldn’t help badmouthing his brother in the late Oasis days, which in a meandering way led to him coming to Sziget with his oddly name outfit of High Flying Birds. He’d probably be taking offence at his new effort being labelled a poorer attempt at being Oasis, but then again, so is Liam’s Beady Eye, therefore we’re being totally just.

For a more genuine 90s experience, one should probably scurry to whichever tent UNKLE will be playing in- let’s just hope it’s a tent, and it’s late at night, and dark, as it should be, though lately the Sziget programmer has been in a bit of a whimsical mood so fingers crossed we won’t have a trip hop picnic in the blazing island sun.(In the meantime I ogled the press release better and got confirmation that UNKLE will indeed be ensconced in the cozy darkness of A38, but now the trio hop picnic idea sounds strangely appealing.)

There’s plenty of repeat offenders this year as well (and that really isn’t a complaint), though with Manu Chao soon it will be hard to tell when he isn’t in Budapest. Jake Bugg on the other hand is pretty young to be a repeat offender, but the man just likes to tick boxes at such a tender age. Kaiser Chiefs have seen finer days- last time they were in Budapest they got a police escort from the airport to the venue and I bought one of their band T-shirts- but they should still be entertaining enough in one of the earlier Main Stage slots. Skunk Anansie are slowly becoming a Hungarian festival staple in the unlikely company of The Prodigy (who are gracing VOLT this year) and Enter Shikari (who don’t have a Hungarian date for this year yet, and I’m beginning to worry.)

There is of course no Sziget without a reminder of past sins- though I will forever blame missing out on Die Antwoord last time they were on the island on the oft reviled programmer, who scheduled them to go head to head with Kasabian. And one does obviously not desert a Kasabian gig, entertaining as Ninja and Yo-Landi might be. Missing out on Crystal Castles should however qualify as a bigger sin, firstly because I have no idea why I did it, and secondly because this time it’s an Alice Glass-less act, which is missing out on half the fun. Or almost all of it. Bloc Party are also returning with a changed line up, and also, alas, a rather tentative fifth album- but I still expect them to provide more entertainment than Bastille, who are basically back to annoy me. Actually they’re back to make little girls happy, which in the grand scheme of things is not such an objectionable mission. I’m probably just bitter I’m not little anymore.

The World Music stage is basically one big jolly repeat offence as it is, with regulars such as Goran Bregovic (also pretty much always in Budapest, just like Manu Chao), Rachid Taha, Leningrad, Fanfare Ciocârlia or Pannonia Allstars Ska Orchestra all making appearances. It does however give me a little heartbreak not to have Shane MacGowan present, especially given that the man has new teeth and could have finally shown Sziget a smile that wouldn’t scare the living daylights out of us. And it’s also supercool to have some Irish music in general- which reminds me, there was a year when I got free Guinness on Sziget, that’s one idea right there on how to make this year’s edition both appealing to the masses and old school at the same time.

But there’s plenty of new names as well, like Norwegian Aurora- whose wiki page revealed firstly, that she’s ridiculously young, being born in 1996, and that there are several bands by the name of Aurora, one of them being, naturally, a British Christian girl group. Whatever that means. Aurora sports a blonde bob, which comes in very handy to link her to another artist on her first Sziget appearance, Sia.

Good electro is not always easy to find, so it’s double nice that one of the bands who are doing it quite well these days is from Romania- Golan will be playing on the Europa stage, which will also host the winners of the Sziget talent contests held in 16 European countries.

I’ve also successfully identified a lengthy host of artists I have never heard of before- which first threw me into fits of panic along the lines of I’m getting old and disconnected from new music, but then I realized that all Sziget line ups have been similar, it’s just that in the past we weren’t so glued to the Internet, dissecting the line up months in advance.

At some point in mid-summer, the good old PestiEst special edition came out with the programme, and you really couldn’t be bothered with the acts you did’t know, you just focused on the ones you wanted to see and the logistics and financial conundrums of doing that. Riding the wave of online possibilities, I have decided to give all these strange names a chance and listen to at least one of their songs- the verdict, however, is left for the next installment.

Sziget 2014 Diary- Day Two

So this year's Sziget ticked another box and duly had its rain day too- or as the Brits in attendance call it, fine summer festival weather, a tad humid but not too chilly.Which pretty much meant a downpour and people scurrying to the merchandise tents for some plastic sheet to wrap themselves in. The worst of it came, in rather unjust fashion, during the Mary PopKids gig: the band were worthy winners of the Nagyszinpad contest, in which several upcoming local bands competed for the public's votes- the one with the most would end up playing the main stage of this summer's major festivals. The fact that they managed to gather a rather large and raucous crowd despite a minor blitz monsoon comes to prove that they're made of the good stuff and seem destined to stay on the scene.

Another efficient way to stay warm (and eventually dry out) during the rain was the Russkaya concert at the World village venue. Initial enthusiasm seemed to be fueled by the fact that the front rows of the crowd were covered by an extension of the stage's roof, but it soon became evident that even the soggy ones at the back will not resist the infectious world music assault of the Austro-Russians (that does sound mildly unsettling, though).Their music isn't particularly innovative but it sure is catchy and sports some festival-efficient gimmicks, which was probably the vital element given the present circumstances. By the time something called the psycho-tractor was implemented (well, people running around in circles) the rain had actually subsided and allowed for a dash to the Main stage for Bastille.

Although you kind of wish it did not, for Bastille were the first band this week who inspired in me a harsh cry of "what a load of utter crap". They sound like a poorly executed mixture of genres they assume hipsters and teenage girls-and the random boy- aspiring to be hipsters would like. Even their logo looks like the doodle of an art school kid bored with her history class: lemme illustrate this storming of the something thingy, Bastille, here you go, with a TRIANGLE in it. The lead singer is also a tad uncertain as to whether he's in an indie band, as his moves seem to be spastic jerks combined with some rap posturing, totally out of sync with his music, his (possible) style and the universe in general. You say Bastille, I say run, fast and furious, through the mud, to the closest stage with any random act on it. Marmosets juggling tomatoes- hell yeah, they would surely blow Bastille out of the water.

Lily Allen was up next- she'd been to Sziget before, in a very unlikely headline time slot, but was relegated to the more befitting late evening one this time around. Unlike her previous performance, which was constantly threatened by her voice completely deserting her when she most needed it, on this occasion her classic tunes sounded spot on. She even dabbled with some apparently feminist visual imagery- though baby bottles, twerking dancers and dangerously high heels sure add up to a confusing combo, even if you count the irony in. The minute problem, however, is that her new album is bad. Well, I was trying to be polite I guess. It's atrocious, like someone who is not Lily Allen actually trying to be Lily Allen with disastrous results. So whenever she tore through one of the new bits, I had a Bastille like urge to run.

And to this urge I eventually listened-with spectacular results. Seeing and especially hearing Yasmine Hamdan is like being hit by the elemental power of nature- there is something eerie, totally absorbing and compelling in the way she plays music, and one of the very first thoughts that hit me was that this is actually the feminism Lily is looking for. It's just that Yasmine is not trying to find it, she is contained within it- occasionally it's not hard out there at all, occasionally someone comes along who makes it look all too easy, because she has a spark inside. It was this spark that inspired Jim Jarmusch when he chose Yasmine to play in Only Lovers Left Alive, and hats off to him for making her known to those willing to listen.

There was apparently some Macklemore and Some Other Person business going on on the main stage, but I say you need at least three good tunes to be a star, and they produced about fifteen seconds of that so far, therefore off I was for some trustworthy Bonobo- same of old, nothing out of this world, but he has three good tunes and sometimes that's all it takes. Bonobo was followed by what I can only explain with a bout of severely infectious group insanity: Stromae is seemingly a flawless god of some sorts, and he even performs miracles, like crowding the whole of Belgium, about half of France and a French speaking Canadian region into one tiny Sziget tent. Truth be said, he has some fine tracks, worked out a neat little stage act and manages to be rather entertaining over the whole hour or so- but, for the love of Odin, there's no reason to die in a sweltering tent, stuck to the sweaty back of a Fleming, for Stromae.

The united nations of Stromae having mercifully strutted off into the dark cool of the Sziget night, we were left to wait for Kavinsky. Who was late and left it late: his music is as good as French electro gets- and French electro being probably the best electro in the world, that says a lot. Nevertheless, he knew it and we knew it: we were all there for Nightcall, which, mean Frenchman that he is, he left for the closing section of the set. Which was actually a great choice after all- taking the urban train never felt as Ryan Gosling badass as when you have THAT tune stuck in your head.