Best of Budapest & Hungary

American singer-songwriter Cat Power brings to Budapest Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert, a recreation of Bob Dylan's original concert, where he switched from acoustic guitar to electric mid-concert, outraging many and making rock history. The concert and the album that recorded it have since become legendary, and it is this that Cat Power has reworked on her album and will bring to us on 18 June 2025 at the Akvárium Klub.

    Cat Power, aka Chan Marshall, is an American singer-songwriter. Her stage name was originally her first band name, and later she chosed to use it as her solo act. In November 2022, Cat Power took the stage at Royal Albert Hall and delivered a song-for-song recreation of one of the most fabled and transformative live sets of all time. Held at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in May 1966—but long known as the “Royal Albert Hall Concert” due to a mislabeled bootleg—the original performance saw Bob Dylan switching from acoustic to electric midway through the show, drawing ire from an audience of folk purists and forever altering the course of rock-and-roll. In her own rendition of that historic night, the artist otherwise known as Chan Marshall inhabited each song with equal parts conviction and grace and a palpable sense of protectiveness, ultimately transposing the anarchic tension of Dylan’s set with a warm and luminous joy. Now captured on the live album Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert, Marshall’s spellbinding performance both lovingly honors her hero’s imprint on history and brings a stunning new vitality to many of his most revered songs.The record was released in November 2023 and has won critical acclaim as well as public acclaim.

    A singularly talented song interpreter with three acclaimed covers albums in her catalogue (2000's The Covers Record, 2008's Jukebox, 2022's Covers), Marshall has a particular respect for the singer-songwriter. "More than any other songwriter's work, Dylan's songs have spoken to me and inspired me since I first heard them when I was 5 years old," Marshall said. As with the original concert (and the entirety of Dylan's 1966 world tour), Marshall kept the first half of his set entirely acoustic, then switched to electric for the second half with the help of a full orchestra: guitarist Arsun Sorrenti, bassist Erik Paparozzi, multi-instrumentalists Aaron Embry (harmonica, piano) and Jordan Summers (organ, Wurlitzer), and drummer Josh Adams. "I knew that when I was representing a performance that changed rock and roll forever, I had to take it very seriously," he says. "Although 'serious' seems like an understatement compared to how deeply I was immersed in it".

    The concert is an authentic recreation of Dylan's performance, and we will witness this special, intimate and extraordinary performance on 18 June 2025 at the Akvárium Klub. Tickets for the concert will first be available to registered Live Nation members from 2pm on 12 December, with full ticket sales opening at 10am on 13 December.