Antal Szalai and his Gypsy Band

Last night, I went to a performance at the Regent Theatre in the Octagon. It was Antal Szalai and his Gypsy Band, a show I heard about while Dad was here and I was really interested in seeing it. I got my ticket only one day before, but my seat was seven rows back and had a great view.

The group is led by Antal Szalai, a gypsy violinist. He is amazing. Despite his not-so-perfect technique, his sound is phenomenal and precise. His band consists of a clarinetist/panflutist, a violist, bassist, and a man who played the cimbalom. Perhaps easiest described as a hammered dulcimer, the cimbalom has something like 139 strings and is played with mallets. It sounded to me a bit like a harpsichord. The musician played incredibly fast. For one number, they even blindfolded him and he continued to play accurately.

I decided during intermission to buy a CD. That meant, though, that I would have to take the bus home instead of the taxi. I was okay with that, since I had been thinking of taking the bus home anyway. When the concert let out, I waited around for a while at the bus stop. I waited, and waited, but no bus came. Thursday nights are big party nights in Dunedin, and the Octagon has lots of bars, so I was a bit nervous just standing around waiting. I made the decision that, if I were going to be standing around for a while anyway, I may as well start walking home.

In order to not target myself as a young woman walking alone at night, I took out my cell phone and pretended to have a conversation the whole way home. At first it felt stupid, but it was kind of comforting nonetheless. I made it home safely and, when I got there, I put my new CD on iTunes.