My mother immigrated from former USSR (Ukraine) in 1980. As a 1st generation, the roots stay thick as I listen to my mother singing along to Gogol Bordello. The mixture of punk, Sonic Youth, and gypsy music creates an audio cultural army. Not until I saw the Gypsy Punks live did I understand the completely beautiful hysteria that is Gogol Bordello.
I took my mother to the show. She dressed up in red boots, a leather jacket, and imitation tight, snakeskin pants. I don’t know what she was expecting, since she is married with an 18 year old, but maybe she might have wanted to meet lead singer Eugene Hutz and talk to him in Russian.
At the Key Club, the sold out crowd for the Side One Dummy Records 10th anniversary listened to the opening band The Dan Band with drinks at hand. Sure they were hilarious performing Destiny’s Child and Christina Aguilera songs, but this was my perfect time to sneak into the VIP area with my mother. We jumped a rope and entered the world of high class Los Angeles concert goers. We just played it cool and got as close to the stage as possible.
The Gypsy Punks began with “Immy Punk,” a slower song and Hutz was still fully clothed. Not until the next song “Sally,” their title track off of their latest CD, Underdog World Strike, did the show get up close and personal. These former NYC art freaks showed what it was like of their underdog revolution. Gogol’s stage show also includes Pam Racine and Elizabeth Sun, triple threat talents, who dance, play percussion and lend their energy to the general on stage pandemonium. The girls many costume changes and energetic antics just add to the band’s highly theatrical presentation. Just Pam, is dating Elijah Wood, who happened to be standing next to me the entire show. My goodness, he has the bluest and brightest eyes I have ever seen. Back to the band mates, Sergey Rjabtzev, the violin player, was a theater director in Moscow for ten years, yet he still runs around on the stage with drips of sweat on his long grey hair. Yuri Lemeshev, the accordion player had such surrealistic solos, I couldn’t help but watch his fingers glide up and down at just a fast rate to make the music sosexy. Rea Mochiach, the bass player, is from Israel. He sung and crowed the trademark Gogol sound from the center of the stage with Hutz and guitar player Oren. . Eliot Ferguson, the drummer, is the only sane person in the band and he is from Florida.
With songs like “Muzika Agressia” talking about the struggles during the Eastern European refugee camps, yet, all their original work that has to do with the culture clash that doesn’t represent anybody but themselves, is the vision of Gogol Bordello. Even when it comes down to crowd surfing on drums and singing in Russian. Plenty of hugging on stage as they sing together that makes you wonder about their revolution. The Gypsy inspired clothing, dancing, and jumping stunned the crowd, yet, made the gypsy punk inside knock into anyone that dared inside the pit. Hutz joined the crowd by crawling on his hands and knees on the supporting hands shot up to hold his mangled statue. My eyes laid on his popped out, wild eyes the entire show as he stripped off his clothes and the girls banged against steel wash boards. My eyes during the show popped out more and more and more with sincere fascination.
SET LIST
1.Immy Punk
2.Sally
3.East Infection
4.Not a Crime
5.Darling
6.Start wearing Purple
7.Dogs
8.60 Revolutions
9.Troubled Friends
10.Oh No
11.Muzika Agressia
12.Underdog World
13.Santa Marinellaa
Encores x 3
Ukrainian Gypsy culture adapts to any new found home, but rejects assimilation and never looses its identity. That must be why my mom never gave in.
