Traffik Jam

Last week’s blog entry was acceptable as a starter, but I decided after it that I am going to raise the stakes next week. The time I chose for visiting the Underworld was unlucky because of the lack of live performance, and it made me somewhat sad. This left me no other choice but to search for a place where there would definitely be a concert. After a short googling my eyes stuck on two capitalized letters: HC. For those of you who don’t know, this beautiful combination of the consonants c and h stands for HardCore, so you all know the reason behind my excitement. The place in question where the HC concert took place is called Traffik, and the bands MIR and MoNNo were totally unfamiliar to me, but the night hold some great surprises and I am sure I will not forget them. After this little introduction, let me tell you about the club and the bands.

The club’s located in the 8th District of Budapest, not far from ELTE’s Humanities Faculty, where I study. Traffik is in Mikszáth Kálmán square 2, and the easiest way to approach it is to alight at Kálvin sqare tram station. Both 47 and 49 can get you there, and the rest of the distance will be covered by a little walking. First objective is to go through the underground and come out at the side where the National Museum is. Then go all the way through Múzeum Street, at the end you should turn right into Szentkirályi Street. If you managed to get this far, you should only walk for half a minute or so to reach Mikszáth sqare with Traffik club just on the corner. The place is some sort of joint operation: a restaurant called Zappa works on the ground floor, and the place in question where rock bands perform every night is downstairs.

I decided to visit the club on the 23rd of February and this time around I happened to be alone, because all of my friends turned down the generous offer to go to a concert with me. Perhaps that was the reason why I descended the stairs with a little fear in my heart, but that fear was gone in a moment when I reached down. The entry fee collector girl was smiling so beautifully that I would have gladly given her another 1000 HUF if she’d have asked me to. After I snapped out of it and put my jacket on a hanger I decided to check out the bar. At first I thought that my eyes are deceiving me, but unfortunately they were not: the menu looked like as if it was specifically designed to screw around with straight edgers like me. A 0,5l coke or any kind of pop was 600(!) HUF. My fellow straight edgers are advised to bring lots of money with them, others don’t have to worry, because alcohol is MUCH cheaper: draft beers were 400, 450 HUF (depending on brand) per 0,5l.

After I calmed down, the concerts finally started, so I finally got the chance to check out what the place has to offer in terms of music. The bands had to use a very small platform; the members were cramped on it and the guitarists were in the worst situation, they were basically unable to move. The audience on the other hand had a lot of free space, my guess is that roughly 90-100 people can get in, but that night there was a number clearly much lower than that, no more than 40 were present. The arch ceiling, the stone walls and the shady lighting all gave off the feeling of being in a wine cellar and as an added effect the acoustic of the place was therefore exceptional. The person who was responsible for adjusting the volume went a little bit overboard, however. When the bands played, the level of noise, and especially the noise of the bass guitar was so loud that small pieces of the ceiling was raining down on us. Frankly, this gave me the creeps.

Both of the bands were unique that night, and I doubt that I will ever hear a band like MIR and MoNNo in the future. MoNNo was first on stage, a band consisting of a bass guitarist, a sort of scratch man, a drummer and a saxophonist(!), now that is quite an unusual setup if you ask me. At first I had my doubts about them, but when they started playing, all of my doubts faded away. The saxophone was a perfect replacement for the lead guitar, I would even go as far as saying that this substitution gave birth to something new. MIR was following them with a rather regular looking line-up consisting of a drummer, guitarist and a scratch man; however, this band was exceptional in its own way as well. The scratch man added scary noises to the music, and the drummer occasionally used an empty beer keg to beat instead of the drum, but he produced sounds with the same profession as he did with the drum.

Before wrapping up the event and giving my final comments on Traffik, there is one other thing that should be mentioned, however. As I was on my way leaving the club, I saw a familiar guy sitting on the swing in the hall in front of the front door: the saxophonist of MoNNo. I had the plan of interviewing him formulating in my head, but I wasn’t sure whether I should/could do it or not. With some hesitation I approached him, and I was happy to find out that Antoine Chessex, the guy playing on the tenor sax, is a nice guy, willing to answer my questions. So here is my very first interview, and let’s hope there will be more to come:

Leslie: I hope I won’t offend you, but I never heard of you, could you tell me a few things about your band?
Antoine: We are MoNNo from Switzerland, the band has been together for at least ten years now, and right now we are on a tour.
L: Your music was quite unique, I never heard a band featuring saxophone. What genre would you put your band in?
A: You know, that is an interesting thing. I do not believe in genres, and don’t care much about what genre they put us in. I heard some labeled us hardcore, some other said we are a doom band, yet another said we play experimental noise. But, you know, music is music. The only thing we care about is to entertain those who like what we do.
L: Did you get any chance to go around the city? If so, how did you like Budapest?
A: Oh, I love Budapest, I have been here before; however, we don’t have the chance to go sightseeing this time, because the tour must not stop.
L: Could you tell me a little about this tour?
A: Of course! We are doing a little European tour together with MIR, we planned a tour consisting of 8 concerts, and currently we are halfway through. So there are still 4 concerts left, the next stop will be Ljubljana.
L: How did you like the Hungarian audience tonight? I noticed that only 3-4 people were headbanging, we didn’t show much enthusiasm, didn’t we?
A: You know, I don’t mind if the audience doesn’t headbang, in fact I prefer if they do not do that at all. They should actively listen instead, like you did tonight. About the Hungarian audience I must say that they are good listeners and have been very kind to us, coming over to our table congratulating or asking questions relating to our band. I am also very grateful to your questions as well.
L: No, I should be the one thanking you for answering all my questions. Thank you very much and good luck with the rest of the tour.
A: Thanks, good bye!

Now it’s finally time to evaluate what there could be said about the Traffik club. It is not far from ELTE, it is easy to approach. The club is in good condition, it was renovated not long ago from what I heard, and it has a nice atmosphere. The prices are pretty steep, this being one of the greatest cons against the place. In terms of safety, Traffik doesn’t fare that well either: besides the little problem with the ceiling that I mentioned before there is a bigger issue: there is only one way to exit. A narrow stairway leads down to the club, and this also serves as the only means to exit it. Good thing is that the music compensates the shortcomings of the place. There are bands performing there every almost every night, and the entry fee is totally worth the price. Should you not care much about safety and your budget, this is the place for a rocker like you to visit. Traffik club rocks!

Welcome to the Underworld

Underworld might have been the resting place for many heroes in mythology and literature alike, but do not worry my readers! For me, this place was not the end, but the opposite: The Beginning. I made it back, and I will try to give you a clear overview about the place in order for you to muster the courage to endeavor on the same path as I did. Let us take a look at the Underworld rock tavern.

Situated in the heart of Budapest, the tavern is an easy place to reach. It is just 2 blocks from Jászai Mari square in 13th district Tátra Street 1. The easiest way to get there is to get on the tram line 4 or 6 and alight at Jászai Mari square. The tavern is open from 6 am. to 12 pm. on paper, they won’t kick you out if you enjoy yourself and want to stay longer however (I have been there with my friends ’til 1 am). Although in this case one has to bear in mind that trams won’t run on their full line (just until Blaha Lujza square), so plan your transportation accordingly, and find out how late night buses run!

Once you get there you cannot miss the imposing double doors that lead down to the Underworld. As soon as we got there I could hear some familiar sounds escaping through the crevice of the doors. I knew this was the right place. While my ears experienced a slight orgasm caused by the fantastic music, I also took a look at the tavern, which can be split into 5 parts. The bar can be found on the right hand side, just as you walk in. On the left hand side there is a larger section with 4-4 booths on each side, where 4-6 people can comfortably take place. As the place also serves food for its customers, there is a restaurant section in the back with accommodation for 32 people. For those who want to spend their time playing, there is a separate section with table football (csocsó), darts and slot machines. Last but not least come the restrooms, but I would like to come back to them later.

After I quickly estimated the situation it was time to order some drink. My friends of course went for the local draft beer first. Seeing their happy faces as they reached for their jug of beer, I decided to order an alcohol free one myself, so that I could look badass among them. The attempt to get alcohol free beer was a futile attempt however, so I had to resort to drinking coke. If the fact that pops are the only alcohol free drinks one can get wouldn’t have been enough, I was also enlightened by my pub-visiting friends that the prices are not that good either. A jug of Holstein was 330 HUF, the draft brown beer (csapolt sör) was 360 HUF, and 3 dl of coke was 210 HUF.

The tavern itself is in relatively good condition and the furniture, painting, posters, pictures, the nice bartender guy as well as the customers give the place the distinctive rock tavern look. However, a rock tavern wouldn’t be a rock tavern without rock music, so let me talk about it a little. Sad thing is that I was visiting at a bad time: there was no live music. There were several speakers screaming the best metal songs one can imagine. All of the songs were new to us, and although the music was loud it was not so loud that we couldn’t hear each other talking. Lastly I would like to mention that there will be a concert on Thursday (24 Febr. 2011), so anyone who likes screamo should go and check out the Hungarian My Small Community’s performance.

In the last part of my first blog entry I would like to pay some attention to cleanliness and safety. This is the funny part where I will elaborate on the restrooms as I promised earlier, as the simple expression: pub-like, is simply not enough to describe them. Basically the toilet entering process could be done in three different ways:
1. You can go and figure out which door leads to the female or male toilet by trial and error, if you are lucky and see a pissoir on the wall you are on the right spot.
2. You get yourself caught red-handed while trying to get into the wrong place and take the advice of the owner of the bar to use the other door.
3. Or you can learn from my experience and go there with the invaluable knowledge that the door on the left side leads to the female toilet and the right one to the male.
Once you enter you can take care of whatever business you have there, just endure the stench and try to move constantly to avoid sticking to the floor. In terms of safety the tavern lacks nothing, the front entry is spacious enough to flee through and there is also an emergency exit, so feel safe to visit!

To sum up my first experience about the Budapest rock life, I must say that the Underworld rock tavern was really a nice place to start with. The tavern is easy to approach. Prices could have been better, but the place is huge and you can have a good time with your friends there. Although, a hazard sign should be put on the toilet doors (or at least they should indicate which door belongs to which sex), the other parts of the pub are nice and it also suits safety regulations. Music, which was the primary reason behind my visit, is great for those people who like hardcore and metal. With being that said, there is no rock loving person to whom I would not recommend the Underworld rock pub.