Hrvatska punk

The first band of the Pop-Rock Main Stage on Saturday was Overflow from Croatia. Although the four-piece punk-rock band is coming from our neighbourhood, this was the first time that they played in Hungary. They tried to express their love for Hungarians with a couple of well-chosen Hungarian words, but since it is not easy to cope with Hungarian words, they chose to do what they are the best at. They gave a serious lecture on the art of standing on and jumpng off monitors, and they even illustrated how to make the crowd go wild while sitting in the corner of the stage. The band has done over a thousand gigs all over the world in the past one year, but they still had the energy to make songs like Surprise or Wasted sound perfect. Had Green Day been born in Croatia, their name would have been Overflow, for sure. .

Hadouken!

In the mid-90's, you could bump into a regional Pokemon-master in nearly every pub who – with the help of a piece of wire - had the ability to add the right amount of credit to Street Fighter slot machines. Why are we mentioning this? Well, because „hadouken” is basically the battle cry of the character called Ryu. So it's easy to come to the conclusion that this band from Leeds found the stupidest name ever. What makes their situation even harder is the fact that any music-fan over 25 will do anything to avoid a band like that. In fact, the guys (and the keyboardist girl) looked like the celebrity-attraction of a suicidal prom. Their emo-like appearance is, however, accompanied by a vivid electro-rock medley, so they had no reason to be afraid of tomato-rain or other flying objects. The band is often referred to as the „high school Pendulum” and consists of rather young members: no wonder that they managed to capture the heart of teens with the first two songs already. Frontman James Smith was not a perfect singer, but a wonderful showman. (Even though we saw some more spectacular stuff on stage yesterday.)

Girls only

Kate Nash is considered to be one of the most talented British singers. Thanks to her voice, charisma and beauty, she even won the BRIT music award in the category of the best female singer in 2008, which is a rather serious professional award. However, there is something else to prove that she is an oustanding artist: it is her shows, obviously. Those who thought they would see a vulnerable, sophisticated, stuck-up diva singing in balloon-voice had to face a bitter disappointment: the 21 year-old singer started with a brutal rock sound right from the begining, and speeded up like crazy with her all-girl band. They played more than seventy minutes, and we can definitely say that not only girls liked the show. In fact, guys were screaming their marriage proposals on top of their lungs between songs. A lucky fan even managed to get on stage, but this did not perplex Kate a bit: she made him sit on the stairs in front of her piano, and sang him one of her most popular songs Foundations. This was not our most memorable moment though, but rather when Kate recited a rather powerful and obscene poem, and when she jumped on her piano during the encore. Miss Nash was charming and fun, perhaps the Cub-cover My Chincilla was the only song that didn't put us on our knees, but Pumpkin Soup made it up in the end, so it was okay.
 

Oh My God

After beautiful Kate Nash, Kaiser Chiefs conquered the Main Stage of Sziget. The Hungarian audience is very familiar with one of the best indie-rock bands of England, and Ricky Wilson and co. gave us the kind of show we love them for. After a short intro, the opening song of the first album Everyday I Love You Less And Less made the crowd go crazy, turnning them into screaming and dancing lunatics. It is not easy to be a British indie-rock band – just think about the competition – but Kaiser Chief's songs are catchy, perfect hits and sound great on stage, too. Besides, the five-piece band from Leeds comes with a hyperactive frontman which makes them one of the best live bands ever. During the one-hour-long gig, you could hear all their classy songs: it was a perfect mixture of old and new songs, and Ricky spiced up the show to the maxium: he sang in the crowd, ran around on stage like an athlete, and the closing song Oh My God is still one of the best indie-anthems ever.

Thirty Seconds To Mars

The greatest band returning to Sziget this year – besides Prodigy, Chemical Brothers or Kaiser Chiefs – is definitely Thirty Seconds to Mars. Nevertheless, we have to admit right in the beginning that they had to substitute Amy Winehouse who cancelled her tour this year. Unfortunately, the omnious signs were not lying: it was one of the most beautiful moments of Sziget when frontman Jared Leto remembered the late singer. It is rather rare when a band of this calibre plays in Hungary three times within a year, but the trio from Los Angeles has the kind of fanbase that would fill the area in front of the Main stage every week. The cult around the singer is quite unique, and the band managed to show us again why they are so popular. After the drumsolo-intro we had 75 minutes of compulsory 30STM-atmosphere, with all the great hits, and Jared Leto really gets the hang of playing with his fans. The first fan to jump on the stage – with a Hungarian flag in hand – was Patrik, and then nearly a hundred fans were screaming with the trio and the background musicians. „Jump!” - perhaps this was the word we heard the most often during the show, plus we even faced a confetti-rain and huge balls... so basically everything we could ever expect from a rock-act of this calibre. Although after last year's Sziget and their gig at VOLT last month we would think Jared Leto recognizes the Hungarian flag, the show of 30STM was still a perfect and amazing way of closing the Saturday-program of the Main Stage.