Start Wearing Purple: Gogol Bordello

Last week we sauntered over to the dark streets of Brooklyn to find a venue called Warsaw – aptly named in a neighborhood of Eastern European immigrants. And a kinda aptly chosen venue for the chaotic Ukrainian band we were about to see.

Gogol Bordello is a band that’s been around for some years. It’s a kind of punk-gypsy jam band on a circuit with a base of hardcore fans. It’s also a band that’s getting a lot of notoriety beyond the crowd surfers, pogo-ists and mosh-pit monkeys too.

In a city that tends to stand back and appreciate live performances from afar, it was quite refreshing to stand in the twenty something crowd as it surged forward to catch the lead singer Eugene Hutz surf the crowd in his knees. The picture above shows Hutz playing his microphone against one of two spoon boards worn by one of two female members of the band (who come at various stages of the show playing spoons, drums, cymbols and just prancing around in a sweat.)

Hailing from the Ukraine, the songs are a mix of Ukrainian, English and Spanish. All are sung in a deep Slavic accent. How could we descibe the night? A kind of mash up between a student disco, an Irish Wedding in Kilburn, a Balearic nightclub, a Polish strip-joint and New York’s Bulgarian Disco – where Eugene Hutz plays DJ.

Are Gogol this year’s Gotan Project? It’s an easy comparison to make but where Gotan go for beauty and precision, Gogol go for raw passion, fun and energy. Thir latest album is called “Gypsy Punks”.