Some Mondays are Better than Others- Sziget Day Four

The fourth day of the festival proved to be the polar opposite of the third when it comes to concerts, as if it was trying exceedingly hard to make up for being a Monday-not that you really know what day of the week is when you're on Sziget: from 4 PM both the main stage and A38 had a pretty strong showing basically in each time slot, thus prompting frequent commutes which proved to be ever more challenging as the day progressed. Festival commuting is a questionable, albeit natural behaviour: you start developing a sort of musical ADD, especially towards the last days when you get increasingly tired: you give an act five minutes, and if they can't win those, to the bin with them. Sometimes you stay undecided, linger longer at a gig than expected, then wander into the next one without a frame of reference- oddly enough, you may miss a large chunk of shows and still have a decent idea about them if you catch either the opening or the closing track.

We were therefore on duty at 4 PM when Years and Years pulled a minor Rihanna and came (un)fashionably late, but lead singer Olly Alexander is as charming as he is slight and seems to genuinely enjoy being on the island, so they're off the hook for this one. He has all the right to be pleased, as the crowd assembled in front of the stage is pretty staggering for such an early slot, and will not be replicated during the day until Sia's headline show. The groupie brigade is on the barricades, looking all flowery and glittery- a great match for the band's bubblegum electro, which nevertheless seems to grown on you in the balmy afternoon breeze. Quite unrelated to the band's otherwise strong performance, the weather is basically festival perfect, warm but timidly overcast, so you can comfortably hang out in skimpy outfits without getting lethally sunburnt.

Next up are the Kaiser Chiefs, returning to the island minus their classic drummer Nick Hodgson, but with a re-invigorated and slimmed down Ricky Wilson sporting a rather splendid yellow jacket, fresh off his stint as a coach on the BBC's The Voice, which I find somehow puzzling for someone vying for indie cred. I was also pretty doubtful about their more recent material, which consistently failed to live up to their first two records, and especially the first, as I do consider Employment one of the often overlooked minor classics of noughties guitar music. In a therefore somewhat natural way the intensity of the concert seems to waver when the band plays newer material, but you really can't go wrong at a festival when you deliver zingers like I Predict a Riot and Oh My God. It also helps that Wilson is in constant connection with the crowd, cajoling them into singalongs- since I was already musing on the strange nature of festival performances I can now venture into concluding that the Kaiser Chiefs ticked all the right boxes. 

In a case of the above mentioned ADD, we briefly left the main stage to check out The Neighbourhood in A38, and I kind of wish I didn't as what I saw of their gig couldn't shake off the feeling that they're one of those typical okay bands. There's nothing inherently wrong with their music, but they never do anything exceptional, releasing scores of very similar songs which will result in a small but religious following and hardly anything else. The followers were in the crowd, the tunes were delivered, many people were happy and I grabbed a coffee and returned to the Kaiser Chiefs, both of which had the welcome effect of jolting me back into life. 

At 7 PM there came a confetti party, and we had some new masters of the ceremony. Here I must confess criminal ignorance- ever since the special parties were added to the festival bill, we usually had the same person leading us up to the throwing/shaking/rattling of colourful somethings, he loves to talk about peace, unity, friendship, in a somewhat annoying but also very fitting way and I have no idea who he is. I could of course resort to google now, but won't, because we all know ignorance is sometimes bliss. Suffice to say that two new people entertained us yesterday, it was pretty cringe-worthy, and I want the previous person back pronto. 

Since it's confession time, I will also admit to having had mixed feelings about Noel Gallagher showing up with a band that is not Oasis- because I am such a nice and fair person, I harbour exactly the same feelings about Liam's band which is not Oasis. I love them both to shreds, Oasis was one of the defining musical experiences of my teens, and in Noel's case you can't but notice just how amazing he is as a musician- he writes great songs like you and I breathe. It's just that these songs are not anthems anymore and although I found the show perfectly enjoyable it was also a bit sedate, something akin to a Ferrari with a hand break on looking for a comfortable parking spot. 

Noel was therefore left to his own devices while we checked out Chvrches in A38 and I am happy to say Chvrches, while not being exactly a musical Ferrari, did not have the hand break on either. Lead singer Lauren is a bundle of energy running up and down the stage, and as the gig progresses the energy becomes contagious and you suddenly feel like dancing a bit, then a bit more, and of being transported to a temporary happy place. Lauren's overwhelming stage presence does have the downside that, when the lead singer role is temporarily switched, a rather large number of people decides to leave the tent, but the show soon recovers pace and finishes off nicely with the band's best known tracks. 

In the meantime this day sells out as well, and we're ready for the main stage headliner. Or most people though they were ready but had no idea of what was coming their way. Sia has always been a slightly puzzling presence: she's been releasing music for almost two decades now and is the writer of some of the most popular hits out there, but only found real fame recently and seems as uncomfortable with it as could be. She therefore landed on Sziget's main stage with a show which consisted of her sporting her now classical wig hiding her eyes, standing very still for the whole time, belting hit after hit while dancers performed around her and leaving those in attendance somewhere between the incredulous and the delighted. I myself am exactly halfway in between: the performance piece itself is great and I would have gladly watched it in a smaller venue with a a good view of  what's happening onstage being available to all those present. 

But on Sziget, late in the evening, somewhere in the darkened distance of the main stage's bowels it just fell flat on it's face. I would have also really enjoyed a live band, which I don't think is too much to ask from a live concert, after all. At the end of it I felt like someone who wants to cross a river, and instead of a boat is given a golden butterfly: the thing is most definitely beautiful, but it just won't get me to the other side. 

The day ends with this edition's French love in in A38, and my delight at having correctly predicted that the tent will reach full capacity and thus rushing there on time to catch M83. Quite fittingly for a band named after a galaxy, their deep space inspired visuals are splendid and perfectly complement that kind of electronica which seems to be an exclusive talent of the French- it's catchy enough to almost enter the realm of pop, but also cold enough to appeal to those with more outré tastes. 

Later, as our boat was slowly rocking downstream the Danube, it of course dawned on me that this was the last but one day, which is frankly ridiculous. But that is nothing new, each year, although you get increasingly exhausted and your body signals that this insanity has been going on for too long, you still feel as if it's only just began and want more of it. Much more.

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.