This is a day I will tell backwards, or at least stepwise backwards. I returned to Pécs on the festival bus during big winds; there were branches all over the streets. The Platon Karataev show was not the best I had heard, given the drunken crowd and sometimes imbalanced sound mix, but the music and performance transcended all of this. It must be ridiculously difficult to play at 1 a.m. when you are not a party band, but they threw themselves into it, and the exuberant and (largely) attentive audience swayed, leaped, and sang along.
I wish I had stood a little farther back. A woman in front of me kept waving at someone, not just briefly or subtly, but wildly and tirelessly. At first I thought she was waving at the film crew, trying to get on film. Then I thought she was waving at Laci Sallai. Maybe she was just trying to let a friend know where she was. Anyway, it was distracting. (I thought of moving away from her, but the place was packed.) There were also people who held up their phones right in front of my eyes for a long time, taking videos. These days I take pictures here and there during shows, but I try to make it as quick as possible, so as not to bother others or myself. This is the one picture I took of Platon Karataev last night.
For me, some of the peaks of the concert were “Csak befelé,” “Elmerül,” “Ex nihilo” (with Hungarian lyrics in the middle part), “Tágul” (even though the vocal mix was off), “Lassú madár,” “Atoms,” “Wide Eyes,” “Ocean/Wolf Throats,” and yes, “Elevator,” even though I gather they are a little tired of playing this early hit of theirs, and even though it turned into something of a collective roar. Some time ago I read an interview where Gergő and Sebő talked about the songs on For Her (their first album) in terms of stages of grief; if I remember correctly, they said “Elevator” represented the bargaining stage. Besides the music and brilliantly simple lyrics, this bargaining is what I love about the song.
We are always bargaining in some way, not just in romantic relationships, but in anything we care about that comes to an end. And all things do in some way. “You can call it anything, but that was love.” It’s a basic struggle, or an act of defiance: to hold on to the meaning of something that is no longer yours, that has been taken away from you, even something of yourself. The love in particular. This happens even at a concert. Then comes the letting go, but the defiance has to be there, I think: the declaration that this was in the first place, and second, that it was love. The bargain takes this form: I allow you to “call it what you want,” but the truth of it (or what I know as such) stays intact, with me.
Yes, the concert, the festival is slipping away now (just a few more concerts for me to hear this evening), and yes, describing it is a way of resisting the loss for a little while. But then, as with other concerts, it fades and becomes part of my life. Everything slips away and becomes something else. “Nézd, ahogy hull a levél / aztán földet talál / ez is csak sejthalál” (“Watch how the leaf falls / then finds the ground / this is just cell death,” from “Lassú madár“).
Earlier in the evening, I heard a joyous, momentous Kaláka concert. In between Kaláka and Platon, I could hear nothing else. I didn’t want anything else for a while. So I went down to the lake and sat down among others who were likewise taking a break.
The Kaláka concert was humbling in a happy way. They have a vast repertoire of songs and albums, and young people in the audience knew the songs by heart. Many of the songs are Hungarian poems set to music: for all ages, for everyone who can take in the sorrows, humor, awe of everyday life. They (the musicians and the songs) play for all of us, whether we know the songs or not. So many instruments and sounds in a short interval of time, and a boundless love of playing. I have much to learn in, of, and from their music, but beginners are welcome too. The point is to be with the music. And we were.
Before that, I had a beautiful afternoon: three concerts on the “Fireside” stage (“A tűzhöz közel”). First a trombone concert (with varying numbers of trombone players, at times eight in all), then the rapturous, inspiring Flanger Kids (who reminded me slightly of Laurie Anderson, Luscious Jackson, and PJ Harvey), and then Barkóczi Noémi playing in duo with her bandmate Várnai Szilvia—wow, what musicianship, voices, chords, rhythms, harmonies. That was the one concert I left slightly early, at the start of the last song (I think), not wanting to be late for Kaláka. But I was sorry to leave.
Before the concerts of the day, I attended a discussion with music managers and sound engineers, who spoke about the background work that they do. It was interesting and well attended (the audience included young people who wanted to go into these directions and careers themselves). One of the most interesting parts for me was Ábel Zwickl’s description of the differences between recording an album and doing sound for a show. Some of the differences are obvious: when recording an album, you have no immediate rush and can do take after take until you hit upon the one that everyone likes. When engineering sound for a show, you have only one chance and have to respond to the moment. But also, in that case, it doesn’t matter so much whether you like the music or not; in fact, the music isn’t exactly your focus. What matters is getting the sound right and responding immediately to problems.
Before heading up to Orfű, I walked around Pécs, heard an accordion player, saw the synagogue, and got a hearty iced coffee and baguette. I also managed to get some scissors and trim my bangs, which had grown a little wild. Then took the bus up to Orfű, walked around the lake to the festival, and saw a family of swans. They were carefully guarding their privacy, staying by the tall reeds. You could only see them from a distance; once you came closer, the reeds shielded them.
And that was the third day of Fishing on Orfű.
I added a paragraph and made a few edits to the piece after posting it (most recently on July 4).
Take Away the Takeaway 