Gogol Bordello @ Terminal 5 - 12.31.07

They say a picture's worth a thousand words.
Well, here go 25,000...

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This last photo was at the end when everyone seemingly started to rush the stage (at the encouragement of Eugene and pals).

And a short video to round things off.
I do have a great video of GB performing Zina Marina in its entirety, but the mean people at blogger have capped my video limit at 200 mb and alas, it's a smidgeon larger than that. So you all will have to content yourself w/the above pics and this short clip below.

As for what i thought of the show, hey, it's Gogol Bordello, one is always guaranteed a good time. My only complaint - the venue. Terminal 5 is just not my favorite as far as sound goes...which considering none of us are going there for the visuals, is quite a problem. I don't know if it's something that can be fixed or if it's just a structural thing that we're stuck with, but I'll definitely have to have a good think on whether to see a band there again. If you stand in the balcony, the sound can be ok, but if you want to be part of the hoi polloi in the pit, the sound is just atrocious.

Art Brut @ Terminal 5 - 11.21.07

Gogol Bordello @ Terminal 5 - 11.3.07

Ah, it's that time of year again. When the weather turns a bit chilly and I dig out all my various scarves and even start longingly eying my winter hats, and most importantly for this blog, it just happens to be when the amazing Gogol Bordello are back in town. Hurrah!

Always an event, always a good time, I've been looking forward to this show for eons...well at least since i went to their last show back in July. B/c just like with chips, or heroin (so I hear), once you've had some Gogol you can never get enough.

They played Terminal 5 as can be deduced from the title of this post...just in case you, dear reader, hadn't been paying attention or thought they'd been reduced to playing some isolated spot at Penn Station....

Well, it is a bit isolated - 11th Avenue? Who even knew there was an 11th Avenue? - but it's a pretty sweet looking place. Not much on the outside, but hey i'm not superficial like that. Can't judge a book by its' cover and all that. But then once inside, it looks pretty good....well, it's set up pretty nicely.

The decor itself? Eh. I thought that all the whiteness - walls, etc, made it look dingy in the low lit periods before and in between acts. It just looked a bit dirty, but I really think it was just the lighting. The balcony railings are all industrial looking, but what's more important, looked pretty safe. Very sturdy. And i liked how there were various levels in each balcony. My friend and I managed to snag a primo spot dead center behind the low wall in the first balcony...which afforded an amazing view beyond the heads of the people in front of us by the railing...well over most people's heads. There's always the unnaturally tall people that i seem forever cursed to have in front of me, but otherwise, amazing view.

Great view of the crowd below as well, which would prove to be quite amusing as the evening progressed.

(More to come tomorrow, as I'm dead tired. But here are some teaser pics.)

The Hives @ Webster Hall - 10.10.07

There was a while when it seemed I was going to see the Hives every other month. Those were good times. Getting the chance to be in the same room as Pelle and Nicholas and all the others was just about the most fun this girl could have in public. The energy they brought to a venue was intoxicating and contagious. But then they went away after touring almost non-stop for a few years. Not that I could blame them. If I remember correctly, at one point they'd been touring for 2 years straight. That's a whole lot of Swedish soap operas to catch up on.

And this girl was sad. And she filled her days by listening to other music (so as to not remind her of what she was missing) and going to lots of other shows. Sometimes these shows were great, almost comparably so to the Hives (Gogol Bordello comes to mind) but most times they were just ok. Pretty good shows even, but whose lead singers would pale in comparison when likened to the great Pelle Almqvist.

So it came to be that the Hives came back to the States...as the opener for Maroon 5. (!?!?) And much puzzlement was had by all. I'd hope that the teeny bopper fans of Maroon 5 (and their dragged along parents) would at first wonder at and then gradually be converted to the greatness that is the Hives...but I'm somehow doubting this. But hey, maybe I'm wrong. Moving on to Tuesday's show...

Regular readers of this blog - all 3 of you [wave] - will recognize the following sentence. As has by now become customary, my friend and i arrived after the show started. I'd had the opportunity to observe the youngsters coming in by standing under a doorway under the heavy pouring rain for about 45 minutes. That's always fun.

Thankfully we didn't miss too much. I think they'd probably played a couple of songs by the time we dragged our dripping selves upstairs. We had pretty good sight lines all the way in the back, by the bar, but if any of you know my friend, you know that's just not acceptable. So we politely, but firmly made our way through the crowd until we ended up maybe 10 people back from the right side of the stage. And my friend thoroughly redeemed herself (and her damn habitual lateness) by spotting a huge empty spot in front of a tall guy with shorties all in front. It was heaven indeed for this petite chick.


But enough about the preliminaries, how was the show?
Well, what to say about the Hives? Kicked ass to infinity. That seems like a pretty accurate description. Pelle was in top form, Nicholas looked fierce (and oh, so hot), Chris was doing freaking pirouettes with his drumsticks and...well, honestly i couldn't really see the other 2. I love them and their contribution, but my angle of view (although pretty good) did not manage to include them for the most part.



They mixed in quite a few of the new songs into the setlist, usually introducing them as such beforehand, even giving the name, which was pretty cool. A lot of bands won't bother with that. The new songs fit right in. Strong beats and fun, but still different enough from the older material. Pelle brought down the house with 'Supply and Demand', 'Aka I-D-I-O-T', 'Two-Timing Touch And Broken Bones' & 'Die, All Right!' I know there were more, obviously, but I never really manage to jot down the setlist - always having too much fun to get it all down. That and i suck at remembering song titles.




Pelle exalted the NYC crowd to be more responsive, to not be so 'cool' (I'm paraphrasing here). At times he claimed that they would stop if we didn't always make huge amounts of noise whenever they stopped. The audience didn't need much encouragement - there was a whole lot of whooping and hollering and whistling...and not all of it was coming from me.




They came back for the encore, when Pelle exclaimed 'And we're now following rock star protocol'. Played quite a few songs, went away seemingly for real this time, and then came back to do another song. Which was definitely appreciated by the crowd. As usual, there seemed to be a whole lot of VIPs up in the balcony, who Pelle always messes with.



There was a whole lot of jumping and screaming and general good time by one and all.




I hope they come back soon, this time sans the boys from Maroon 5 to limit their gig ability (the Hives usually do 2 or 3 shows in NYC). I'm really looking forward to the new album - Tick Tick Bomb is pretty sweet - and once again having tixs to a sold out Hives show.

P.S. And yes, I do have a thing for Mr. Larson...even if he happened to be sporting a bit of extra frizz, he was still a frizzy-haired dreamboat :o)
Oh, and I almost forgot. There were no actual incidents at Webster Hall. Everyone behaved themselves - crowd *and* staff. An anomaly for sure, but still appreciated.