When I first heard about Gogol Bordello, I must have laughed for a solid five minutes. It was nearly impossible for me to take a band that proudly called themselves “Gypsy Punks”, seriously. I’d first heard there very famous party song “ Start Wearing Purple” when I attended the annual Cabaret Night at my High School. This evening is a presentation of a variety of music, ranging from Jazz to Heavy Metal. I enjoyed most of the bands, seeing as how they were membered by many of my friends, and generally had a good time. But near the end of the evening, one of my Senior friends performed with his band and quite simply “rocked the house”, as godawful as that expression is. I would say that just about everyone in that small ramshackle cafeteria, acting as a sort of nightclub on this particular night, was beside themselves and dumbfounded by what their ears were hearing. One might suppose it is the same sort of feeling people have gotten for centuries when something hits them that is so mind-blowingly different then the general filth that they had been hearing their entire natural-born lives. Perhaps the best part of this band’s cover, was the excellent recreation of the portion of the song in which violin player Sergey Ryabsev shouts “ Start wearing purple…for me…nowwww!!” in a comical fashion. In this case, that was done by this friend of mine, who did an excellent job of bringing his own interesting antics to the performance.
After that night, the name Gogol Bordello seemed to become known all throughout my small group of friends. Each of us seemed to have “Start Wearing Purple” stuck in our heads, and we all were amazed by the incredible amount of energy that the band seemed to pack. It was the sort of music that had a truly energizing effect on people, like a great sugar high, or dose of caffeine from a triple tall latte. Why then, I asked myself, did I feel like this band could not be taken seriously? I thought about this for a while, and soon made myself listen to more of the Gogol Bordello discography. Admittedly, I was resistant to appreciate the sheer genius of frontman Eugene Hütz at first, but I soon found myself becoming a huge admirer of the Ukrainian-born man after I watched the documentary Gogol Bordello Non-Stop. The title of this recent documentary turns out to be incredibly apt in describing the truly non-stop schedule of the multi-ethnic band. To give you a sense of what my definition of non-stop is, here is a look into there schedule at the moment:
July 17th
PISA, ITALY
Parco della Cittadella
July 18th
GURTEN, SWITZERLAND
Gurten Festival
July 20th
FREIBURG, GERMANY
ZMF Festival
July 22nd
MOSCOW, RUSSIA
Green Theatre
July 23rd
ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA
Stadion Telebashnya
July 29th
ESSEX JCT, VT
Midway Lawn at Champlain Valley Expo (with Primus and
Heloise & The Savoir Faire)
July 30th
BROOKLYN, NY
Williamsburg Waterfront (with Primus)
“GB Vs Samba”
July 31st
SAYERSVILLE, NJ
Starland Ballroom
August 1st
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA
Charlottesville Pavillion (with Primus)
August 3rd
CLEVELAND, OH
Time Warner Cable Ampitheatre (with Primus)
August 5th
COLUMBUS, OH
LC Pavillion Outdoor Ampitheatre (with Primus)
So, it seems clear that the members of the Gypsy Punk band are working rather hard, and have been working on this very intensive touring schedule since the release of their album Super Taranta. A schedule like this can really only be rivaled by bands like Phish, and or course the Grateful Dead. But what is so special about this band in particular, that separates them from every other loud, annoying, and obnoxious band in existence, is their dedication to what is most important—MUSIC!
One more thing:
I’ll be attending their upcoming concert at the Starland Ballroom, and I intend on writing a follow-up post about my experience seeing this band live. The dream would be to meet Mr. Hütz, but I’m not betting on it.
-Steven P.
July 17,2010
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