Take It Easy Hospital, the leading band from
No One Knows About Persian Cats, a movie about the Iranian underground music scene, has been introduced live to Titanic’s audiences – with huge success.
Not only did the award winning Iranian film attract full house on Monday evening in for its Hungarian premiere in Toldi (people sat even on the stairs!), but hundreds of people were queuing up for the Tuesday evening party in Gödör Club, where the concerts took place in a fully crowded hall.
The Persian Cats Party was opened by front men Róbert Bérczesi (Hiperkarma) and András Nemes (Pluto) with their brand new rock band Biorobot; their dynamic songs were followed by the similarly short but very intensive set of the Iranian band, a set full of catchy indie-rock tunes. The charming girl singer with glasses, Negar Shaghaghi and keyboard player Ashkan Koushanejad sang turned towards each other, accompanied by their bass player and drummer.
Beside the young Hungarian festival audience we could also see many young faces from the Middle-East who got turned on especially by Me And You, a song with Persian lyrics, while the film’s (and the soundtrack album’s) hit, Human Jungle ended the concert in a complete euphoria. For the encore, Ashkan returned with his acoustic guitar to perform a cover version of a song by Pink Floyd, The Final Cut.
This was the first time that a foreign band played at the Titanic Festival party, what’s more, this was the first time ever that an Iranian group has ever performed in Hungary! This party was also of great importance for Take It Easy Hospital: Ash and Negar, who have just been granted asylum in Great-Britain, have given only duo concerts (usually with one synth or one single acoustic guitar) since they left Iran, and this was the first time here in Budapest that they have performed with a full band, bass player and drummer included.
On stage, Ashkan played an old school red Yamaha electric piano, the very same one that was used in the film No One Knows About Persian Cats. After the concert Negar told the Titanic crew that the instrument was finally transported from Iran to Great-Britain half a year after they had fled the country.
We owe a special thanks for the organization of the event to the crew of Gödör Klub and the Office of Immigration and Nationality.
(photo: Csaba Fodor)
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