Best of Budapest & Hungary

Starbenders are the rising gods of glam rock, tearing stages apart with shocking energy, whether it’s a festival or an intimate club show. Hungarian audiences last caught them at Barba Negra and on July 7 they’ll blow the roof off Dürer Kert with their first headline show in Budapest and a soon-to-be-released new album.

    Starbenders are the embodiment of the rock’n’roll dream for every dreamer living on this third rock from the sun. Singer-songwriter Kimi Shelter is like the love child Johnny Thunders and Joan Jett should have had, raised with an impeccable musical education at Blondie Elementary School, Def Leppard High, and Bowie College, before completing a PhD at Siouxsie Sioux University, majoring in “Fuck All Y’all.”

    Meanwhile, Aaron Lecesne brings crushing bass lines, vivid musicality, and lightning-strike stage energy to the band, wrapped in fashion-icon flair, while Hungarian-born Kriss Tokaji is the literal embodiment of a Guitar Adonis, whose talent is set to place him among today’s leading young guitar heroes.

    The band has toured the world with acts such as Alice In Chains and Palaye Royale, destroying the house every single time. Budapest has already seen them alongside Palaye Royale. In recent years, the band has released four full-length albums alongside numerous EPs and singles, and their latest record, The Beast Goes On, arrives on February 27. And it’s not just the beast that’s unstoppable - the band is too - so on July 7 we can rage to their songs at Dürer Kert.