Quimby

My favorite band EVER! I wish I could show them to my friends in the US. They made an English album years ago but they got really popular in Hungary after they switched to singing in Hungarian. I have no idea how many of their concerts I have been to in my life, but probably couldn't count on two hands. They used to give concerts on a weekly bases, especially in the summer; I remember a particular summer when I was home from college during which I probably saw them 10 times. Always a great show, always crazy: dancing, jumping, screaming, singing along to all their songs, ah the good old times...



Then they burned out. The lead singer had some alcohol/drug problems, spent some time "getting better" in the country and they made their big return sometime a few years ago if I remember correctly. Now they don't give very many live shows, instead, they do a very modern interpretation of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night in a theater production, which I have seen twice (yes yes, I am obsessed).



I have been wanting to see them so badly for years! Finally, this time around I saw that they were giving a live show while I was home. It wasn't in Budapest, but Hungary is so small, nothing is very far, so I asked my friend and fellow fanatic, to buy tickets. She got busy with finishing up med school and forgot and by the time I got home, the show was sold out. I couldn't really be mad at her, but she felt bad and came up with an idea, I originally thought was crazy. She said we should write the band an email. First of all, I thought, does she really know their address? Well, they have a website and on their a message wall for fans. So we went on there and my friend composed a message (my broken Hungarian wouldn't do) in my name, saying something like this: I have been your biggest fan for over a decade - not a lie - but unfortunately, as I have been living in New York for some time now - here we inserted a quote from one of their songs about sailing to far-away places - I haven't been able to go their show in a long time and how I was visiting only for a short time and my biggest dream was to see them in concert again. Then I offered that if they ever visited New York, I would happily put them up - there are only 7 guys in the band.

Two days later, I got an email from the band's manager, offering to put 2 tickets away for us at the door. I could not believe it! What I had originally thought to be a crazy idea actually worked. I guess we just have to have a little more faith in people after all. Many people do listen and do care and are willing to go out of their way to help otehrs out. Believe it or not, the tickets were indeed saved for us - well, actually, my name was written on the box that held the wristbands with +1 written next to it - although there was some debate between the two doormen about whether or not we should be let in. As a result - or perhaps it was planned this way - they let us in without paying. I was so worried and nervous and then stunned that while I was holding some cash in my hand, we just ended up walking in. Later, it seemed kind of wrong to go back and ask if we needed to pay. In any case, I bought a band pin to contribute :)

The show was great, although I do feel like I am getting a little old for this "let's cram as many people as possible into a small space where everyone is smoking, drinking, it's 100 degrees, there's no air, you can barely move, and if you want to be close to the stage, you have to put up with all the pushing and shoving and people falling on you and I wonder how I survived so many concerts like this one back in the day when we were always in the front row". We moved to the side and had a blast after all!





What a great experience, what a great way to end a wonderful trip home! Thank you Quimby!