(A version of this appeared on my subscription-only Substack newsletter.)

Here’s what a friend and I did on Friday night in Budapest:

That’s my friend John O’Sullivan, the legendary conservative journalist, and me at the Ákos concert at Budapest Park. Akos — pronounced AH-koash — is a major Hungarian rock star. He is also a conservative, a serious Catholic, and a family man (his oldest child, a daughter, performed a duet with him onstage the other night). I met him shortly after I arrived in Hungary, but had no real idea what a big deal he is here until Friday night. All I knew before is that he’s a genuinely nice man, and that his wife Krisztina Öry, a well-known journalist, is one of the kindest people I met in this country. Here I am having lunch with them on the day we met, May 6. Akos is clowning around with a Tucker Carlson story on his iPhone:

A Hungarian who knows the US pop culture scene told me that Akos is like Jon Bon Jovi. Imagine a slightly more techno Jon Bon Jovi as an out and proud Catholic and conservative, and you have Akos.

Akos and Krisztina invited John and me to the show last night, the penultimate one on a tour of the country Akos has been on to celebrate the post-Covid re-opening of the country. The name of the tour is “Fel A Szivikkel,” meaning “Up With Hearts” — the title of Akos’s latest song. It’s about reclaiming joy after the season of Covid darkness. I can tell you that the 6,000 or so people at Budapest Park Friday night were all on board with the joy. Look:

Believe it or not, that was John O’Sullivan’s first-ever rock concert! John is 79, and from Liverpool. He was there when the Beatles were a local band, but never saw them. Never saw any rock or pop stars in concert, until last night. His reaction was characteristically English, and characteristically John: “This is charming!”

One of the gifts of being John’s friend is the pleasure of being around a true cosmopolitan who takes the world as it comes, and is genuinely surprised and grateful to experience new things. It’s hard to believe that he’s nearly 80. There are people in their twenties who are not as sprightly and eager to embrace life as John. I saw that once again last night at the Akos show, and boy, what an invigorating thing for a guy like me to observe.

John and his wife Melissa (who has been in the US visiting family all month) are friends of Akos and Krisztina, who invited us backstage after the show:

I came home last night feeling on top of the world. I had loved the music, of course (I’m listening to an Akos playlist on Spotify as I write this), but also thrilled over how much live music can do to lift one’s soul. I’m a year older than Akos (he’s 53), so I should have learned by now that live music is one of the best ways to beat the blues. Yet I keep forgetting it. How grateful I am to Akos and Krisztina for reminding me!

It was a short course too in artistry. Again, I had never seen Akos perform until Friday. My experiences with him had all been at lunch, or just hanging out, where he acted like a normal guy. Onstage, he is a riveting performer. John said to me during the show, “Look at how he commands the stage.” It was true. My friend had the entire crowd in the palm of his hand, and knew how to give them what they wanted. The thing is, there is nothing cynical about Akos. He really does love his fans, and loves performing for them. It was startling to see my friend, just this dude, transform into a rock star, and then backstage be his normal self again. All in a day’s work.

It was also uplifting to watch the big Hungarian crowd in such a celebratory mood with Akos, their hero. Akos Kovacs has been making music all his adult life, having begun with the band Bonanza Banzai in 1989, the year Communism fell; he was 21. I was hanging out with a 29-year-old Hungarian before the show. I told him that I’m surprised that he’s into Gen X music. He said, “Are you kidding? Akos is legend. My generation spent our childhood listening to his stuff with our parents. This is my music too.”

(I didn’t mention this in the Substack version of this post, that that 29 year old is Gaspar Orban, the son of the prime minister.)

I stood on a terrace looking out over the crowd last night, and saw three generations of Hungarians rocking out. I noticed one little girl, maybe four years old, on her father’s shoulders. I could make out that she was singing the lyrics herself. It was such a beautiful moment. This is their thing. Akos is their guy, singing their songs in their language, which nobody else in the world speaks. They welcomed me into their evening, as they have welcomed me into their country this season, and I even though the Akos show could never really be mine, it was close enough to bring me joy. One more reason that I will go back to America on Labor Day Weekend a different man, and a happier one. I wish all Americans, especially those who are down on Hungary because of what they’ve read in the US media, could experience the fullness of this great country. Turns out that Tucker Carlson and his crew are coming over early next month to do some filming and interviews here. Finally, American viewers will get to see a more complex story about Hungary.

Hey readers, if you can go hear live music this week where you live, why not do it? You might be surprised by how much good it does you. As Akos says in this post-Covid song that gives his current tour its name, “Up with hearts!”

By the way, if you like that upbeat number, check out “1956,” his somber tribute to the heroes of the 1956 Hungarian uprising against the Soviets. I’m only sorry I can’t speak Hungarian, and can’t appreciate the lyrics. Several people told me at the concert the other night that for Akos, the lyrics are the main thing, and that they are quite poetic in the original language: