Best Concerts of Sziget 2015: #8 Passenger and #7 Florence and the Machine

As I had already confessed in one of my pre-Sziget line up round ups, Passenger for me kept being the guy with that intensively radio friendly song. And before we blow things out of proportion: intensively radio friendly is not a derogatory term at all, it simply denominates a very catch tune I very much like. Apparently there is another very catchy song with a very similar title- namely Let It Be from the sound track of Frozen and it ruined poor Passenger’s life as people kept confusing them. If it offers any solace to Mike, Let It Be is intensively hateful as far as I am concerned and cannot be mentioned on the same day as the lovely Let Her Go.

Putting such technicalities aside I now again come to the point where I am running for my life from the claws of Martin Garrix’s vile onslaught of boring and annoying machine music. And get to Passenger’s tent and have faith in humanity restored. If there’s any gimmick to his show it’s that there aren’t any. He comes with a guitar, he plays great tunes, he even does good covers. (This being one important take away of this year’s Sziget- not everyone can cover songs graciously, and we should cherish those who do.) He links his songs with little introductory bits that are genuinely engaging and funny, something not all musicians can and/or want to do- won’t elaborate on the Death Star pun here, as it was already mentioned in the daily review, but that was one of those things that will etch the memory of this concert in my mind as a Sziget classic.

I now have to confess I often read bad reviews of concerts I liked just to pump up my adrenaline levels by getting worked up over pretty much nothing. So here it goes, to the guy who said Passenger was boring, you my friend have no soul left, because Avicii and the Garrix person burned it out of you with lasers and musical mediocrity, and are therefore utterly and irreversibly hopeless.

Now, I liked Florence and the Machine, I liked them a lot, I even sacrificed the superb insanity of a Future Islands concert so I could watch the entire show, because it was riveting and never lost my attention. I also thoroughly support the idea of many more female fronted, or why not all female, headliners. There was however something that kept on nagging at the back of my mind throughout, not quite taking a coherent shape. There was something slightly off with the performance, I just couldn’t put in into words.

As we have learned from any detective novel that’s at least half decent, such case solving illuminations always come when you least expect them, so the idea struck me in the dead of night, while pondering going out to the kitchen for a little something: her show is simply too structured for the outpour of emotion she would like to convey with it. You should not really plan emotion, but she does- it’s not that it isn’t really there, it’s just that it has, well, a machine built around it, that functions like clockwork ginger. It’s a bit like the flower wreaths she keeps popping on and off her head: pretty but ultimately plastic.

It is of course completely clear to me that the quirky Florence of Lungs could hardly have fronted the main stage, either on Sziget or at Glastonbury, so here comes the revolutionary observation of how one needs to make some compromises on the road to superstardom.  So the thing is, I somehow did not want her to become a superstar- yet I am somehow glad she did.

Everyone on Sziget is Secretly Belgian- Day Zero

It's always delightful to start a post with breaking news, so here we go: the lava hot dog is back. It is less delightful not to be able to provide photographic evidence, but our sheer joy at encountering the sublime food item combined with a devastating hunger made us realize only too late that, before all else, food must be nicely arranged, lit, and instagrammed. We vow to make up for this most unforgivable sin in the days to come.

Before encountering the eighth wonder of the world we made another trip to the Europe stage- and almost got lost, which is a feat given that it is basically in a straight line from the entrance. But yes, we were just trying to disprove the fact that a straight line is always the shortest- on Sziget it most definitely isn't. As a pleasant "overheard on Sziget" anecdote we can also share the epochal words of the security guard who, confronted with a jar of ajvar by two seemingly clueless Dutch damsels who pretended not to know the item is radically forbidden, promptly exclaimed: no making of stupid, this glass!

So back to the Europe venue, it was time for Tony Baboon of Romania, who had the misfortune of going on stage in the most merciless post noon sunshine- a special shout out here for those who danced through the whole gig in the sun, you know who you are. The rest of us mere mortals hid in the shadows- it must be said that the crowd was actually pretty numerous, but huddled to the left side, under the trees, which must have been awkward to see from the stage. This did  not stop the band in their tracks though, and I never ever thought I would see the day when the folk tale Mioriţa, previously dusty school book material, would be belted out over the island of freedom and sound pretty amazing. Welcome to the world of Sziget epiphanies. And if this made you think that Tony Baboon plays folk music, you're totally wrong, and you should hop over to youtube for some edifying material.

Since there wasn't much action going around at 3 PM, we checked out French songstress Joe Bel, up next on the Europe stage. She's doing a rather straightforward girl plus guitar thing, but luckily of the better variety. Her set also brought along a horde of Frenchies bedecked with Native American headdresses- Sziget will probably be the last stand for them among the major festivals, as similar headdresses are being banned all over the circuit for cultural appropriation. But as there are pretty few Native Americans roaming around Hungary, it's highly unlikely the will complain any time soon.

There was still a gaping hole until the next interesting act, so we decided to drop by Sziget beach. Which in such torrid weather is about the best idea one can have. The Cökxpôn ambient tent was also shifted to this area from its traditional close to the exit spot- while it pretty much makes sense to combine the two, Cökxpôn used to be a wonderful last resort to crash in before heading home, so insert small grumbling here. There were of course many revelers lounging at the beach, but there were quite a few quiet spots as well for some afternoon reverie far from the madding crowd, doing some reading and planespotting- insert geeky silliness here: to add to Sziget's awesomeness, it's straight under the descent line of most flights heading for Budapest aiport. The total zen however made it triple difficult to head back into the burning jungle.

But head back we did, to check out Asaf Avidan on the main stage. Now Asaf is of course best known for the ubiquitous remix of his tune One Day, and there was a distinct feeling that lots of people were around specifically to catch that one, and of course it arrived only for the encore. so after a rather energetic start the concert wavered a bit halfway through to then pick up pace again towards the end, building up for the previously mentioned climax. As a very relevant snippet of information, we must however coo over how impeccably dressed he was and give bonus points for the roaring twenties meet cave woman outfits of his band- lots of girls in there indeed, something we definitely approve and support.

Up next in the main stage area- soap bubbles. I was wondering what remark of great philosophical and socio-political importance I could add to soap bubbles, and to prove that with a bit of effort and perseverance one can achieve anything here it goes: while animating the audience for the bubble extravaganza, the Sziget master of ceremonies noticed that there aren't so many people from Africa on the island, so Hungary needs more immigration to solve this problem. 

Somebody in the government office should be in for sleepless nights on hearing that, but we can't really feel for his pain and head on to Quimby- who are, alongside Tankcsapda, among the very few Hungarian acts who can still claim a main stage spot, to the overall bitterness of some. The thing is, if you're a hardened Sziget goer but not an uber Quimby fan, you do by now feel like you've maybe seen them one time too many, and make your escape to, well, warmer climates, namely the positively sweltering A38 tent- more Sziget benefits in a heat wave: when you leave A38 in the evening, you suddenly realize how cool the outside air actually is. Another big thank you to the island- putting things into perspective.

And in A38 we made one great, pivotal discovery: there are very high chances everyone on the island is secretly Belgian. Tricky people, them Belgians: by their speech you often take them for Dutch or French respectively, but when there's a Belgian act on the bill, they suddenly reveal their true nature. So after the full blown Belgian apocalypse of Stromae last summer, we had the mini Belgian apocalypse of Selah Sue. Whose soul and reggae tinted music might not be our specific cup of tea, but it's one we're glad to have every now and then for a change. 

The evening's main stage attraction were of course Florence and the Machine- whom Sziget signed as a pretty big act back in early spring, and then got themselves a Glasto headliner come June. But the most important question is, of course, what do the Robbie Williams disapproving aliens think about Florence. And the answer is comforting: maybe, just maybe, the planet will be spared, because on the stage we have a high priestess of some sorts, clad in translucent white, who has a sublime voice which entitles her to lead her people based on solid grounds. 

It's uplifting to see a female lead deliver such an energetic and self assured performance, adding in the personal and emotional touches that make the experience feel raw and real. My only slight concern were the songs from her recent album, which is good, no doubt about that, but a bit too monotonous in the long run. So it was great to see her end with the superb Dog Days are Over from their debut, and arguably still best album, Lungs. And as another very relevant snippet of information, Florence's groupies are among the most lovely to the eye, covered in glitter and gold, wearing flowy dresses and flower wreaths in their hair, like some crazed pixies who escaped through Sziget's secret dimensional door.

The most painful time slot clash of this year's festival came early on, and while we had planned to jog over to Future Islands at some point, Florence's set was too intriguing to let go. Based on the last song of the set, which we did manage to catch, it must have been a blast, so we can only hope to have them back around here as soon as possible to make up for our loss.  Right after the show, there were some pretty transfixed people wandering around the tent in a daze, murmuring 'future islands future islands'- and that's one of the loveliest feelings you can have when it comes to music, a live performance that sends you places, something a recorded version cannot ever replace.

Our last act of the day were Jungle, who managed to viciously drop the bass right at the beginning of their set, sending the people in the proximity of the sound system into altered states of mind and body. Since they are Brits, we will grace them with the nation's favourite adjective- interesting. Must be our slight alienation from soul, classical or modern, that stops us from totally buying into their music, intensive and well crafted as it might be.

Look Who's Coming to Sziget

Well, erm, it’s Robbie Williams. And Robbie out of all people even has one of the special pre-festival days dedicated to his artistic endeavours- kind of  a far cry from the times when he was my favourite ’take that’ based on the simple fact that he looked most clueless. (Insert here perusal of old Take That videos and oh my god, Robbie in a denim overall/onesie in Pray. What has been seen can, of course, never be unseen.) Now truth be said, and this is a snippet of epic importance here, Take That were never my favourite boy group, and I kind of took to Robbie more when he went solo, plus his concert reviews are consistently of the better variety, yet I still find the fuss a bit strange. But then again people have been going nuts over things that are even more of an enigma to me, like let’s say Kanye, so guess I will settle for Robbie, thank you very much.

The second special day will have Florence and the Machine headlining, and that’s also a bit odd to me, she’s still kind of stuck in the redhead with great voice and quirky outfits category. Of course I know that she has in the meantime taken to more dramatic attire and upped her „belting her heart out to giant ass tunes” game quite a few notches, so there, I want feathers, sparkles, sequins, showers of light and the likes to warm my dark little heart.

Speaking of my dark little heart, I might as well get the end show out of my system before I get too worked up about it. I kind of get the point of the whole endeavour, it’s nice to have some fireworks and easily digestible acts at the end of the festival, especially since so many revelers are by that time, as the lead singer of Hangmás nicely put it last year „washed shit”(the Hungarian version actually makes sense, yes.) Nor do I have anything in particular against electronic music, there’s quite a lot of it that warms said dark heart. But Martin Garrix is just beyond my powers of understanding. He is the most average EDM act I’ve ever heard, and as I was perusing Wikipedia and saw he’s Dutch I suddenly had the epiphany of oh yes of course he sounds like a poorly recycled Tiёsto. That’s what he is, to the core. I can only pray the similarly timed act in A38 is as good as La Roux was last year, to make whatever Calvin Harris had been doing on the main stage utterly irrelevant.

As I keep writing this thing on and off, kind of trying to let any rabid feelings settle by the time I shoot it out into the great wide open, some new acts keep popping up and then falling into a category I already ranted or raved about- so here’s Avicii, being the Swedish version of „average (insert nationality here)DJ” who plays exactly the same stuff as the other guys. I do remember liking one song from his varied repertoire, though, so I'll settle for aimlessly walking around the main stage during that one, then. And as a fresh development, the Eurovision winning song sounds exactly like that Avicii song I like- so as an improvement to the set, Måns Zelmerlöw could be occasionally thrown in with his little dancing stick man.

Interpol 2011

Since I’ve been pretty much on a moan ride above I guess it’s time I moved on to the good stuff. Because there is good stuff, actually, brilliant stuff and loads of it. So I will jump into the thick of it. Kasabian and Interpol. That sounds like a prayer answered.

I’d actually been eyeing Interpol’s calendar early in the year and noticed a Sziget shaped hole forming in it right about the second week of August. And I was so right (I kind of love being right, so I was double tickled pink by the loveliness of it falling into place.) Now I’ve always loved Interpol a bit too religiously for my own good, but I will admit to their arts falling a bit into the monotone around their self titled album, when they seemed at a loss as to what to do with themselves without Carlos Dengler. So last year’s El Pintor was the sweet sound of victory- yes, the magic is still there, Interpol can still sound like the coldest music to melt your heart, something they do better than any other noughties bred indie band.

Kasabian 2010

Kasabian on the other hand never really put a foot wrong- or always put all their feet wrong, depends on whom you ask. You might go on a rampage and label them lad rock, then go on another one saying how pointlessly sophisticated of them to have an album with song lengths as titles. But for me any criticism can be countered with the sheer feeling of joy I have at any Kasabian concert- and due to them being busy bees and not avoiding Eastern Europe as much as other big acts, I’ve now seen my fair share of those. From playing for a handful of people in Pecsa to the Main Stage of Sziget I’ve never felt anything but giddy whenever LSF came on. I’m actually feeling pretty giddy right now, there’s one hell of a night waiting for us in August.

Foals 2014 VOLT

Last summer I boarded a hot capsule of tardiness (that’s a MÁV train for you, yes) to the far off provinces to watch Foals at VOLT, now they’ll be boarding something I assume fancier to come straight to my back yard, but I regret nothing, double Foals makes me double happy. ALT-J are one of those bands that could go either way for me- I fancy a couple of songs, but don’t go over the top for them, so if the live show is any good, the might just etch themselves into my heart. If not, they’ll go onto the ’other generic indie acts’ heap. Future Islands managed to get NME’s nod for the 2014 track of the year for Seasons, which baffles me to this day, I hope to be at least a bit less baffled after their concert- a bit of an ALT-J case this one as well, it might turn out great or utterly meh (like the 1975 did last year, another case of weird NME hype).

Speaking of what I did last year (not necessarily summer, but mostly the spring and autumn), well I missed some concerts, as I always do, and mostly because stupid. MØ I missed because I still cannot properly consult a calendar and not plan trips to clash with concerts. So I thank the heavens above she’s coming to Sziget, yet, judging by my matchless talents, I can imagine wandering off to some alternative tent during her time slot, because see above. Kadebostany were cancelled, so that’s not my fault, I would say, but since I was rather curious to see their act I’m glad they got regrouped to Sziget (Though really, The Horrors cancelled a Budapest concert as well, I’d say that demands a grand regrouping manoeuvre too.) The reason why I missed Dropkick Murphys will forever be shrouded in mystery, so I will try to compensate for said horror this time around and catch one of my absolute favourite songs live-the only way I could stop playing Rose Tattoo in a constant loop is my iPod growing tiny iHands and slapping me each time I do.

Enter Shikari 2013

There’s of course, as always, complaining about how Sziget brings the same acts, year after year. Well I guess when you’ve grown into a bloody big festival, you arrive at a point where everyone who matters has  already been around. So either you go Glastonbury style and bring, erm, Stephen Hawking, or you stick to the stuff that works. Like Enter Shikari, the absolute Hungarian festival sweethearts- with a bit of luck Rou Reynolds will climb onto a tractor this time, or any eerie moving object in the main stage area. Eugene Hutz of Gogol Bordello wouldn’t say no to a tractor either and is generally very adept at promoting wine as a staple festival drink in it’s rather underdog battle with beer. I don’t have fingers and toes to count just how many times Goran Bregović has been to Budapest, but he’s always a sure hit on the World Music stage- and since Saturday doesn’t yet look all that promising on the main one, I might just end up among Italians screaming their hearts out to Ciao Bella and then suddenly becoming fluent in Serbian as well.  

Gogol Bordello 2011

Beatsteaks were an excuse to get really wild to No One Knows long before Queens of the Stone Age themselves graced Sziget and it’s good to have one biggish German act each year to please the large Bier und Spritzer drinking contingent. Speaking of acts that are brought mostly for the enjoyment of their fellow nationals, I have the distinct feeling Fauve are here mostly for the giant French village, but God bless their hearts they gave Sziget organizers a really grand idea. For Fauve are great, though probably something IS being missed from their charm if you do not speak le French, so everyone start assaulting those fast tracked summer courses at le French institute.

José Gonzalez 2008

The Ting Tings haven’t had an album in a while, so it will be interesting to see what changes they can bring to their set compared to the previous one, but José Gonzalez does have a new album, and it is quite splendid (his previous Sziget gig was splendid as well, mind you), so I am totally looking forward to some more splendour. Marina and the Diamonds comes in the wake of an album as well, and while I might not be quite as taken with it as with José’s effort, her shows are always absolutely worth their money.

                                                        Marina and the Diamonds 2012

Then there’s a list of acts I might as well see if the time slot allows it, grouping the likes of Paloma Faith, Ellie Goulding, Tyler the Creator or SBTRKT (hell yeah, I typed the name correctly from the first go).And yes, I will try to stick to my promise of discovering something new and exciting as well.