Tanks in Camden

I don't really have any lame or bombastic opening line so I'll just jump in the middle of it. Or, according to the good old Diabolus Dei tradition: in medias res. Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls yesternight Hungary's top r'n'r act paid a visit to the humble capital of the UK. Actually we paid for it, but who cares!

 Sorry about the quality of the picture - Blackberry is a fruit and nowadays a phone but it's not a camera.

 And when I say yesternight I mean like 4 hours ago. Maybe many from the people present at the gig are still at Dingwalls drinking and - according to noblest Hungarian tradition - are wining about the ye old good times when Tankcsapda was in town. Maybe the band is there getting wasted as well. I on the other hand am already on my favourite night bus after only a couple of hours of beauty sleep. This is one of the advantages of having a perfect radio face - you need less beauty sleep than all the TV stars.

There is a good chance that there are some drunk Hungarians in Camden town as the place was full of them, there were some 300-400 people present at the show with the overwhelming majority speaking the same language as us. "Sorry", "pardon", "excuse me" was shortly replaced by "bocsi", elnezest" and this transition happened so smoothly as if that would be as normal as changing the guard. 

Again, the fruit and the camera.

Of course, not all of them came exclusively for the band, many of them came just to meet other Hungarians and to introduce themselves properly,  last name first. I do believe though that all of them heard the name of the band as it is ubiquitous in Hungary as it became synonym with r'n'r. Before the show I was wondering what sort of songs they'll play 'cause according to the tendency of previous tank gigs from back home whenever they play on a festival - when not everyone attending their show is there because of them - they tend to play a set list featuring songs from their more popular catalogue, songs that were present on the TV or received heavy airplay. On the other hand when they are on a show on their own they tend to choose from all of their songs and do tend to play a handful of songs that are known only by the hardcore fans. This concert is an own show but still it resembles a festival because Hungarians living in London don't exactly have a wide range of Hungarian show to choose from so, as stated earlier they will attend this show in lack of a better –softer – show. All of my fears that we'll see a parade of hits are dissipated from the minute the guys step on the stage as they start with an old gem leaving much of the audience standing. Still the atmosphere is hot -literally: too hot if you ask me - and in the next hour and a half we party to a wide range of songs, spanning from their very first song from their 21 year old demo to songs from their album from last spring. Moshing went on from wall to wall – or should I say pogo? Which obviously is not a dance. I had lost my voice a bit and my ears are still a little deaf, WHAT? I SAID I’M DEAFFFF!!! but that’s all right, at least I can’t complain that it wasn’t loud enough. Because of the night’s proximity to Monday morning we were easy with the booze, which, looking back now, was a brilliant idea. And of course, it’s strike two on the list and things are shaping out nicely. 

 Here's a better picture, it's not mine though, you can find more here.

One of their songs states that: this is not India and this is not a sitar, I’m afraid that this morning only the sitar part is true because this is sure as hell Little India. So I might just put done the phone and start to do something serious. You gotta lose good times if you want good times.

Rock'n'roll-nak hívott from Diabolus Dei on Vimeo.