Last thursday I decided I wanted to go and see Epica, no matter the costs. Somewhat uncharacteristically, I followed through: saturday early morning found me on a train to Tokaj after only a few hours of sleep. Blame Matthew Vaughn and Kick-Ass for the latter.

Probably I was the only person going to the festival alone.

I spent the morning climbing the local hill (512 m) called Kopasz-hegy. I must have lost about 3 kilograms in liquid but the view compensated for the effort.

The first band I saw was Magashegyi Underground, previously unknown to me.

Barabás Lőrinc Eklektric followed, also not something I usually listen to, nevertheless enjoyable.

Péterfy Bori struck me a bit older than I thought, and I still just can’t stand leggings stopping just below the knee.

I moved to the Jim Beam tent well before Epica. (One must secure a first row position in time.) Ossian was playing.

Next came Depresszió. I like some of their songs but to be honest this time I couldn’t wait for them to leave and let Epica commence.

The devil never sleeps, so they say: it was obvious that something went wrong when roadies wearing a permanent frown scurried back and forth on the stage angrily. It was on the organisers, I could read the lips of the guards saying it’s our tech. Tension mounted, some got restless and started shouting, even throwing stuff on the stage. Only after about an hour could a relieved roar signal that microphones finally started working.

What happened next I can only describe as giving a lesson in artistry, attitude and musicianship.

I’m sure many so-called stars would have thrown a hissy fit. Instead, when Epica took the stage Simone apologised for the delay (of no fault of their own) and promised us many songs in compensation.

They practically figuratively destroyed the tent.

We got extra songs, Mark playing in the gap between the stage and the audience, water bottles thrown at us, a drum solo lit by the stroboscopes… every stunt possible considering the space and tech at hand.

I have no idea how Mark had any voice left afterwards and of course Simone is still absolutely stunningly gorgeous.

Cry for the Moon taken from the first row:

I usually just post a picture of a number but this year I decided to use this – terrible quality – video.

There will be a meaningful post again, I promise. Until then check out this sick but awesome video from Trent and his wife. I’m quite excited about their new project, How to Destroy Angels. NIИ sound with female vocals has great potential.

Mein Deutsch kann nicht so schrecklich sein, weil habe ich diese Video ganz verstehen…

Lena ist die Deutsche Bewerber für Eurovision.

(via @Honigferd)

BUDAPEST– April 30, 2010 – SeSam celebrated the 100000th scrobble on the music site Last.fm. The jubilatory track was Capital of Nowhere from the latest studio album of The Gathering. SeSam has been using the Last.fm service since November 12, 2006, and managed to reach this impressive scrobble count in less than four years. Statistically this feat requires listening to an average of 79 songs every day.

“Music is more ancient and more intrinsic to humanity than language. I believe every person has a soundtrack of their life. I just chose mine to be kept a record of,” he explained.

“Also, the idea behind Last.fm resonates very well with my achievement whoring and point collecting OCD,” he added laughing.

You can find SeSam’s Last.fm profile at: http://www.last.fm/user/sesamsys

SeSam is the internet personality of Péter Szilágyi, 26, resident of Hungary. He studied economy and international law, works in PR and enjoys running. SeSam.hu is his playground since 2002.

Dani az ex-munkahelyemen nagy Liverpool drukker révén megosztott Facebookon egy rajongói videót, és mellesleg felhívta a figyelmem a kiváló aláfestő zenére. Meghallgattam, és tényleg, és még aznap este allokáltam magamnak a három elérhető Maybeshewill albumot. Egytől egyig veszett jók a számaik.

Angol post-rock/post-metal banda, ilyenformán a dalaik nagy része instrumentális. Emellett gyakran operálnak filmbeli monológokkal és egyéb popkulturális utalásokkal. Jó példa rögtön a legújabb albumuk, a Sing the Word Hope in Four-Part Harmony (2009) címadó dala, amelyikben az 1976-os Network című filmből hangzik fel Howard Beale sokkoló beszéde, amiért az őt játszó Peter Finchet Oscar-díjjal jutalmazták.

A hivatalos YouTube csatornájukról elérhető pont egy tokyoi koncert, ahol ezt játsszák:

Ha én akkor ezt tudom…

Most is válság van, könyökünkön jön ki. Ezzel kapcsolatos a másik kedvenc szövegem, aminek talán ez a (nagyszerű) Guardian cikk az alapja. Last Time This Year a szám:

We are young, confident, affluent, and with no memory of tougher times. We’ve grown up in an era of never ending financial growth and expected things to stay that way. We’ve grown up in owner-occupied homes with total acceptance of technology, global warming and terrorism. Our whole society has been based on consumerism for the past fifteen years, making us dream consumers, yet we don’t know the difference between a credit card and a debit card, and we have no idea how much a pint of milk costs.

On average we have eight hundred illegally downloaded songs, and one in eight of us spends more than one hundred pounds a month on our mobile phone bill.

We’ve never read a newspaper, and we’ve never used our chance to vote.

We allow our governments to make decisions without giving us all the facts.

They send troops abroad who will die in order that we can steal resources from the people who have them. People who meant us little or no harm until we invaded their country. We allow those troops to commit horrendous atrocities and yet our leaders hang our alleged enemies for much less.

We’ve spent years entrusting our futures to our parents, our governments, the banks and the corporations who have continually lobbied for their own interests. And we’ve let them make selfish decisions that have left our society teetering on the edge of ruin.

We’re blinded from the information that would really shock us by stories of sex and sleaze which doesn’t make the smallest difference to our lives. And so we have no desire to do anything about the things that really do. We’ve watched as greed wipes billions of the world’s stock markets destroys jobs and lives and proves that capitalism is just as corruptible by human nature as communism.

These are tough times but we seek solace in our friends and co-conspirators

We make small differences in each other’s lives, and dream that we can make real progress…

Érdemes még megjegyezni, hogy a banda nem hisz a nagy kiadókban. Amit lehet saját kezűleg csinálnak, tudatosan képzik magukat, hogy a stúdiómunkától kezdve a koncertszervezésig mindent meg tudjanak oldani.

Az összes eddigi anyagukat saját maguk vették fel egy filler ráfordítása nélkül. Nyilatkozataik szerint be akarják bizonyítani, hogy hatalmas kiadások nélkül is lehet jó zenét csinálni. A StWHiFPH albumhoz tartozó kis könyvecske tartalmaz is egy útmutatót a filozófiájukról, valamint hogy hogyan dolgoznak.

A csapat neve nem jelent különösebben semmit, csak tetszett nekik, ahogy ez a három szó egymás után téve hangzik. Myspacen viszont sajnos foglalt volt már a nick, így Maybeshewont lett az account neve. Nyomás hallgatni!

Ja, még Last.fm-en is hallgatható tőlük pro bono a C.N.T.R.C.K.T. és a This Time Last Year (ami nem ugyanaz, mint a Last Time This Year ám) a Co-Conspirators pedig egyenesen le is tölthető mp3-ban.

(via techdirt)

If I won the lottery I’d walk around in bespoke suits made by Thomas Mahon and shirts by Péter Anna. I’d drive a Ferrari California Spider and Teufel speakers would blare Pink Floyd records in the living room.

Lisa Hannigan, nuff said.

In advance, I’d just like to show this. This is how high the bar was set:

I stumbled upon The Gathering while I was in Japan only a few years ago and couldn’t stop listening to them. But then Anneke left the band and first there was a lot of silence and uncertainty then the announcement of Silje joining and some new songs posted to MySpace. Which, actually, failed to convince me.

My thoughts were mixed. Somehow the singing voice wasn’t distinct or powerful enough. The heavily guitar-driven sound a little mushy. I couldn’t pick a favourite song from The West Pole either. I was sticking to the old albums for a while.

Not that all this could stop me from going to their show yesterday.

The warm-up band, Autumn, was okay, but I haven’t done my research and didn’t know any of the songs. But then The Gathering took the stage and I was reduced to a fanboyish existence. I knew the rest of the band from all the live DVDs, but Silje was a surprise: she almost looked fragile, contrary to what I expected. She was much more likable at barely an arm’s length than on the band pictures. (Some people chose seats but I went right up to the stage, first line. Basically I was at Marjolein’s feet.)

About half of the songs played were not from The West Pole, rather from previous albums. I knew that they rehearsed old material with Silje but I wasn’t expecting this many. No complaints of course, it was beyond belief rocking out to Saturnine.

I’m also not really sure what transformed me… maybe listening to TWP tracks live or Silje’s non-studio voice… anyway for one I grew to like new material and I wholeheartedly accepted the lead singer swap. I’m Team Silje now.

Just listen to this:

I disagree with @kelt that The Gathering only used to be cool five years ago. They are still going strong after twenty years and they are still very cool, thank you very much.

Surprisingly few attended though: the place was only a little more than half full. I wasn’t looking back too often, nevertheless I think we, the audience, managed to make up with enthusiasm what we lost with numbers. Time will tell, I hope the lower interest won’t prevent or delay a return. I can’t speak in anyone else’s name but I was left craving for more in the end, even though we got two encore songs (Leaves) not just Travel which was on the setlist.

Probably I was the only person wearing a turtleneck in the history of rock gigs.