I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: July 21, 2014] Gogol Bordello

I first heard Gogol Bordello on a PBS music show (I assume it was Austin City Limits, but I can’t find any record of them being on the show).  I didn’t know anything about them, but I was really impressed by what I saw.  Since then I’ve bought a few records, and have enjoyed all of their appearances on NPR shows, but it was after watching the DVD that came with Live from Axis Mundi that I knew this was a band I wanted to see live.  So I was totally psyched that they were coming to the tiny Starland Ballroom.

Now I will say that they were not as exciting here as in the video.  That is due to a couple of things.  The first is that the club in the video was much bigger, allowing them to do a lot more.  The second is that in the video they had direct access to the audience, unlike at Starland so lead singer Eugene Hutz was able to go into the crowd in the video, as were the two dancers (suspended aloft on giant bass drums).  In Starland, they all stayed on the stage (although they did move all over it) and the two dancers have been replaced by one who was excellent but did not climb onto a drum at all).

Comparisons aside, Gogol Bordello put on a pretty amazing show.

Unlike many bands where the lead singer/main person comes on after the band has warmed up a bit, Eugene Hutz came out first.  He helloed to us and then started playing an acoustic version of “Illumination.”  A verse or two in, more of the band came out and they started rocking.  And then more of the band came out and they blew us away.  In addition to Eugene on vocals and guitar, we get Sergey, one of the most intense fiddlers I’ve heard simply wailing away, and Thomas, who lays a deep deep bass, and then there’s Pasha, who makes the accordion not only cool but totally bad ass.  On lead guitar (who hung out in the back a lot) is Michael and on drums (who I barely ever saw) is Oliver.  The two wildcards are Pedro, the MC and co-vocalist and Elizabeth on percussion and crowd inciting.

And inciting is pretty accurate, between the super fast punk sections (I really could not believe how fast they played their riffs) and the chanting (lots of Hey! Hey!), the crowd was in a frenzy.  They were of course aided by Eugene’s encouraging them to dance in a bigger and bigger circle.  And we (well, they) happily obliged.

Speaking of crowds, since I saw how crazy the crowd was for Man Man, I knew I wasn’t getting close for this one.  I started on the side, but decided I wanted to be on the floor after the first song.  I found a spot near the back and at some point the moshing and pogoing came all the way back so people were pressed against me.  It was pretty wild.  Also wild–the crowd surfing was almost nonstop, and I have to  give a huge amount of credit to the security guys who stand at the front and catch everyone as they surf towards the front.  I was watching them as they sized up each person and caught him or her and placed them down on the ground.  There must be some kind of training for that.

But is there any training for this?  I saw a guy in a wheel chair wheel past me (no idea how he managed to get through the dense crowd), and then moments later, he was surfed, chair and all to the front of the crowd, where I assumed he stayed (see photo at right for the chair in the air).

The band had so much energy.  They took a few moments of down time in a few lengthy dub jams, which were yes, a little dull, but well deserved.  Because soon they were back on–Elizabeth banging the giant bass drum or Pedro running around playing percussion or blowing a whistle and getting the crowd to sing along.  And of course ringleader Eugene, who never slowed down (except to drink the bottle of wine he had on stage).  I also liked how democratic the band was using different microphones and sharing the whole stage–with at various times Sergey or Pasha taking the lead.

As they started to head into “Immigraniada (We Comin’ Rougher)”, there was some small kerfuffle in the crowd and Eugene calmed the band while making sure everyone was okay before busting into one of my favorite tracks–and the crowd totally responded to the Immigrada sections.

They played for about two hours, and I was worn out after about 90 minutes.  So I moved off to the side (for a much better view, because I am apparently very short).  Off to the side, I saw some even more interesting people.  A drunk woman who was dancing by herself in a very peculiar way.  And then some guys came along and danced with her (in the same trippy stonery and not-at-all-gypsy-punk way).  There was a guy with a shirt that said “Start Wearing Purple” that looked like he had it made at a  T-shirt shop in 1977.  There were also a surprising number of older people    e there (older men and women easily in their 60s) who did not body surf but certainly got into the show. And there was a contingent from Ukraine there as well, who got a nice shout out and brought a flag and some shirts.

For the encore I went back on the floor to rock out to the new single and the fun, mostly solo version of “Alcohol.”  The closer, after Eugene encouraged us to not wear blinders to the rest of the world was the great anthem “Think Locally, Fuck Globally.”

It was a great show.  Their albums are really good, but live they really transcend their music–always seeming to play faster than they already are.  It’s quite a feat.

Here’s the setlist.

• Illumination
• Ultimate
• We Rise Again
• Wonderlust King
• Dig Deep Enough
• The Other Side of Rainbow
• My Companjera
• Last One Goes the Hope
• Trans-Continental Hustle
• “Immigraniada (We Comin’ Rougher)”
• Mishto!
• Raise the Knowledge
• Malandrino
• Start Wearing Purple
• Pala Tute
• Sun Is on My Side
• Not a Crime
• Encore:
• Lost Innocent World
• Alcohol
• Think Locally, Fuck Globally