Event:	Thy Catafalque: Live In Budapest
Written by:	RaduP
Published:	02.10.2022
Galleries:	Thy Catafalque - Akvarium, Budapest, Hungary, 24.09.2022 by RaduP (46)

This wasn’t the first time that Thy Catafalque performed, and not even the first time that Thy Catafalque performed within reaching distance from me. For some reason I could not attend their show in April, their first in their current live formation, and since then the band has also performed at Brutal Assault and in London, meaning that they had a little bit more live experience. But, more importantly for me, it was on a Saturday.

I quickly tried to find people to join me for the gig. Curiously none from my country, thus splitting any gas money was out of the way, and I had to fall back to taking the train. Instead, me and Mateusz (aka NastyHero) joined up on accommodation and the Budapest visit along with a friend of his, though I did also met up with Sand briefly (who owes me a drink), and also exchanged some words with the musicians after the show. Being far from my first or last time in Budapest, I wasn’t very keen on the actual visiting side, especially considering how early I had to wake for the train (and that’s nothing compared to how little sleep Mateusz got). I was pretty set on the gig.

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JO QUAIL

That’s actually the third time I saw Jo Quail this year, coincidentally the first also being in Budapest, when she opened for Amenra, though that was a different venue. This was more similar to that in that she would perform solo, as opposed to the orchestra she had at Roadburn, and I did recognize some of the pieces that she played as the same from last time. Yet it is still gorgeous to hear them live. If you’re wondering how can a cellist sustain a performance in front of some eager metalheads by themselves, it’s because the looper allowed for some really amazing layering of melodies, and whereas the method is limited in approach but pretty large in scope, as our immersion in each of the songs performed proved.

What was special for me about this performance was that it would be my first time seeing Jo as a photographer, which did bring me to think that there’s only so many ways and angles you can photograph the same cellist on the same stage, so I tried to get a bit more out of the box in terms of my photographs and finally try some long exposure. Results varied, especially since I lacked any kind of tripode, thus I had to stand as still as possible during the long exposure times, but it did lead to some of the photos I’m proudest of, though I’m not sure if this is something that would work in other band photo contexts.

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THY CATAFALQUE

I was a bit nervous about how Thy Catafalque’s gig would go, not only because of this being just their 4th show in this formation, but also because of how high everyone’s expectations were. Well, my expectations were very much met. I had stuffed myself with as much of their music as possible before the gig, since I mostly enjoyed their music in the album format rather than song by song, and I was pleasantly surprised to recognize most of the songs (not by name, but by familiarity), which is only further proof of how out of the box music can also be really catchy.

The band seemed to be in high spirits, and Tamas, who I expected to be the most reserved of the bunch, actually did seem to enjoy himself a lot. The band went through quite a couple of vocalist changes, with the revolving cast of voices changing based on the song, sometimes leading to no vocalists or up to three vocalists on the stage at once. As a photographer, this was closer to standard fare except for trying to get at least one good photo of every member of the revolving cast, yet that proved to be impossible since we had to evacuate the photo pit before some members got to make it to the stage. Disappointing, but I could at least take photos from the VIP lounge.

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MILD ORANGE

You might be asking yourself “Who the hell is Mild Orange and what are they doing in this Thy Catafalque writeup?!”, and that’s a perfectly valid question, and I myself questioned whether I should include this here. But basically, the venue, Akvárium, had two different halls, and there was a concert happening in the other one. While I was in the hallway scouting for merch, I saw that there was a concert in the other hall, and then figured that my media bracelet didn’t mention any information about which hall it was for. Lo and behold: my bracelet got me to enter the other concert too.

This other band was a New Zealand band called Mild Orange, a band I hadn’t heard of previously despite being pretty much up my alley (but my one indie friend did recognize them when I asked). The dream pop leaning sound was pretty cool, with the mellow vibe leaning on ethereal but not too much, even if it did feel a lot like something I’d already heard before numerous times. The band’s songs seemed to be pretty memorable, based on how much the audience was singing along, which should also be a testament to how much they resonated with a lot of people. I did talk with them after the show (they didn’t know Ulcerate) and one of their fans mentioned flying from Argentina to see them. The crowd was a bit smaller than Thy Catafalque’s, but they were even more engaged in the music. It was a bit of a clashing of subcultures, but it was a neat experience overall.

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OVERVIEW AND AFTERWORDS

This was a pretty unique experience, not only because of my media creds adventure, or because of my attempt to go out of the box with my photography, but also because everything added up to a really great concert.

The next day me and Mateusz met up with Tamás for an interview, which you can read here, though more was discussed outside of it. Especially once nik also joined a bit later once he arrived in Budapest and we had a jolly time as a Romanian, Hungarian, Pole, and Greek.