Sziget Festival

Hey everyone,

So, on Wednesday I got to go to Sziget Music Festival, a show so large it makes Bumbershoot look tiny.  The weather was great (not too hot+sunny, without getting cold until way late at night) and the whole place was packed.  The first show was at 3 but we didn't end up making it there until 4:30, partially because I had to work a half day but mostly because Tamas and Maddy slept in (oh, did I mention that Tamas is visiting with his girlfriend?  Tamas is visiting with his girlfriend!  Hooray!).  Although we wandered around a lot, we spent most of our time at the Main Stage, which had a good (but pretty eclectic for a "main stage") lineup for the day:

Flogging Molly--They were, of course, awesome.  Irish rock in a giant crowd, coughing on the dust of hundreds of people dancing drunkedly and rowdily (we showed up late, most had already been drinking for a few hours).  They actually put together a very good set, mixing in some of their slower acoustic pieces with the uptempo Irish rock . . . though I would have been happy to show up at the very beginning of the festival, I gotta admit this was a pretty sweet show to kick off the day

Rise Against--I was happy I got to see this band at a festival . . . I certainly don't like them enough to buy a ticket just to their concert.  But I actually did enjoy Siren Song of the Counter Culture, which was a very respectable punk album ("Rumors", linked above; "Paper Wings"; "Dancing for Rain" . . . all pretty fun songs) . . . but I'm gonna be honest, I haven't really paid any attention to them since that, so I only recognized a handful of the songs they played.  But regardless, it's still rock and that makes for a pretty good show whether or not you know the words.  Oh, and just when I was giving up on them playing anything from Siren Song, they finished their set with a pretty awesome version of "Give it All" . . . and really, being one of hundreds of people jumping up and down in perfect unison to the breakdown (that immediately regressed back into a giant mosh pit once the chorus started again). . . pretty awesome, pretty awesome

Interpol--This was, for sure, the band that made me decide on Wednesday as the day to come to the festival; they're one of my old favorites.  However, I will say I was skeptical--I've always thought of them as "chill" music, wasn't sure how they'd work in a giant concert.  And indeed, there were some people that were determinedly trying to mosh to songs that really weren't the type . . . that was a little silly, not gonna lie.  That said, the giant speaker really gave some feeling to their baselines, which was totally awesome.  And they did manage to bring the rock pretty hardcore for the final song of the set . . . I certainly didn't leave disappointed

After that, we wandered around the whole festival for a while.  I wish we'd spent some more time at the World Music Stage, cuz Afrocubism, a worldwide-reaching supergroup, was definitely a ton of fun, but we wanted to see as much as possible of the festival.  Like I said, that place is huge.  In addition to the Main Stage and the World Music Stage, there was a giant techno/dance tent, a metal stage, and all manner of smaller venues for small Hungarian bands, variety shows, art installation and really just about everything

Anyways, totally worth the money, pretty much the best possible way to spend a Wednesday evening.  And yes, I had to be at work at 9am the next day . . . but it was worth it

Noah out