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.

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.