The last couple of weeks have been quite full of music and thunder storms, though the red alerts seem to occur daily while the music is once a week. Treehugger Dan's again hosted a jam-packed Flamenco evening featuring Nick Palmer and Attila Pozsgai. An amazing evening, and I promise to do something to improve the lighting soon. More on that later. Nick and Attila will be taking a summer break, but they assure me that they will be back again in September. Not only was the music fantastic, but it was a full show with entertaining on-stage patter, and three falmenco dance students also graced the stage. You can tell how much they enjoy playing and being on stage with each other, and that helps relax and bring the audience closer.

Slamballet played last week to another sold-out show. True to the origins of the band, the line-up is in constant flux. Guest base players included David Asztalos (Random Chocolates and Mike Kentish (Random Chocolates, Poniklo). I think I actually prefer David on base to drums - look out Mike! Eszter Polyak (Naked Woods) and Agnes Staudt harmonised beautifully with their hauntingly high-pitched voices, while Pabloslam led from the front and Marci on drums kept it all real.

Like the previous 2 bands, The Poosta Ramblers returned last night for their second gig. Greg Zeigler (The Last Drops, BRING, Marco & Kati, Home Sessions) and Rachel Hammond are really getting around these days. Greg seems to be playing in just about every band in town, and Rachel seems to be singing in them (Zold Hullam, Mookie Brando and the Second Cousins). The music scene is becoming very nicely inbred, for which Mookie has "blamed" Treehugger's being the birthplace of many of these "superbands." I can think of worse things to be proud of ;-) Greg has replaced Bob Trotsky, who will be playing solo at Treehugger Dan's on July 1st.  The Poosta Ramblers brought their own lighting - strings and strings of small white Christmas lights, and it looked so great I think I will try and find some (in summer?) and make it a permanant ambient feature. Mookie held it all together as Rachel's voice soared and Greg provided percussion on a cajon and the occassional jew's harp. Jerome Li Thiao Te (Last Drops, BRING, Home Sessions) also joined in for a couple tunes.Old country songs, lovely harmonies and finger-picking just can't be beat, and it was just what I needed last night.

I should also mention the nice day I spent last Saturday with friends. I will have been in Hungary for 20 years in August, but somehow never used the BKV water taxi. Csaba had a back operation and is not very mobile, so he and wife Jackie and I took the water taxi from Jaszai Mari ter (runs about every 20-30 minutes) to Margit Sziget for about 270 HUF each (cheaper than a tram ticket, and much more convenient since, for the time being, the tram does not stop at Margit Sziget) letting us off not far from Hold Udvar where we had a relaxed lunch. I went for a nice ceasar salad and white wine spritzer. We then moved on to what used to be my favorite summer drinking hole the Sark Kert, just behind Hold Udvar. However, it has been renovated and done up by Champs Sports Bar. A very different and upscale vibe compared to the dressed-down dog-friendly Sark Kert, but probably one of the best spots to watch the World Cup next month. We got back dry just minutes before that day's storm broke and enjoyed a nice cup of Fair Trade coffee watching the rain over the Danube.