I had been super excited to see Gogol Bordello again. Ever since I saw them for the first time last year, I'd been spreading their gospel to any and all who'd listen. Some listened and decided it wasn't their thing, but most just fell for them heads over heels.
How could one not? Their music is loud and brash and clever and Eugene Hutz is one of the most charismatic crazy men in all of music.
The crowd at Irving Plaza was nuts as always, with lots of crowd surfing starting almost as soon as the band came on stage. But I didn't see any incidents or any problems. As DJ Scratchy mentioned before GB started, they'd done a show in Cleveland (I think) the day before and they'd had a mosh pit then. And it was the only time he'd ever heard people crashing against each other and saying excuse me. I was a bit far back seeing as I'm small and didn't particularly want to get squashed. Plus I was with some friends, one of which was not an habitual rock show attendee, who definitely didn't want to be upfront. Happy to be there and enjoy it all, but from the comfort of the back wall.
I did try and keep track at first of the set list, but honestly after a while i couldn't be bothered. It's hard to write in the dark and I was just having too much fun to stop and jot things down anyway. So I can say that they played a whole lot of favorites like Immigrant Punk, Sally, Think Locally, Fuck Globally, Santa Marinella, Not a Crime, and of course Start Wearing Purple, as well as new ditties like Forces of Victory, Harem in Tuscany, Zina-Marina, and Super Taranta! But I couldn't tell you in which particular order.And since as the cliche goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, how's about some?
At this point, Eugene starts to really go mental and jumps into the audience, which has been crowd surfing and moshing all along. And somehow he's held up by them as he continues to sing, as seen here:
Just when it seems like Eugene is soon to pass out from exhaustion, he brings up yet another reserve of energy and keeps on going like an energizer bunny come to life...if the energizer bunny was tall, svelte, mustachioed and mad ;o)
At this point, sensing that running around on stage and into the audience is not quite enough, Eugene takes off, jumps unto the curved wall platform to the left of the stage, and then proceeds to jump up into the left balcony,
I couldn't see everything that was going on since it was on the same side (to the back) where I was standing. But from the reaction of some of the folk around Eugene, it seems he proceeded to vigorously snog some unsuspecting lucky girl :o) And then just hung out up there for a bit, as one would after some exhausting jumping and snogging.
The rest of the band was just as amazing as Eugene. He does take the lead obviously, but they all really get into it, particularly one of the girls. She'd actually done this same thing last time I saw them, but really it's still just as cool. She set up her drum on top of the crowd and then stood up on it, and played it (!) while standing on it.
It certainly manages to impress me every time :o)They then played what we thought was the last song (during the encore), but DJ Scratchy comes on stage (at which point a third of the crowd have left thinking it's over) and asks if we want one more song. And they all come back! They definitely didn't seem to want to leave, which was great to see. The band was certainly having as great a time as were we all.
I was only sorry I'd only gone ahead and bought tixs for this one show - they had a second one the next night. Next time I'll know better and buy a tix for each show they do in NYC. Because there's really nothing like going to a Gogol Bordello show. It's something that should be experienced by everyone at least once.
And so to wrap things up, as I'd first posted: Fucking Amazing! :o)P.S. I do have one question to anyone who might've gone to the show. Any idea why a kid in the back was dressed like a unicorn? He looked great and made my day - why not dress up like a unicorn to go see a gypsy punk band? - but i wondered about it all night.
2.10.08 Update - Yet another clip I found in my library. Please to enjoy Eugene and Co.
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