An unusual double handed post. Two of my mates went to see Gogol Bordello at Leeds Students Union on Saturday night . . . and they couldn’t have had a more different experience! Here’s Hayden Cohen’s review:
After de-thawing from the cold and completing the seemingly never ending line for the cloakroom, I stepped into the roasting furness of the large abyss that is the Leeds University Union Refectory. With a capacity of over 2000, there was one lone singer songwriter on stage. Don’t have a clue who he was, no one was listening and I felt pangs of empathy for him. Anyway… after a half hour the support act came on stage – The Skints. They were a mixture of reggae, punk and hip hop. This worked thanks to the incredibly talented front woman, Marcia, who (and I may have missed something) played flute, saxophone, melodica, organ and had a great voice. Very impressive as well was the singing drummer – Jamie. The guitarist and lead singer Josh however was the typification of over confident. He seemed a bit aggressive and managed to alienate the audience with his crowd revving. I’d recommend not swearing at the audience unless they already know and like you. It felt a bit strange have the sweet voice of Marcia against the harsh melodies of the other male singers.
Anyway after quite a brief pause, headliners Gogol Bordello emerged. Starting with the somewhat sarcastic My Town, it set the tone of the evening. Unfortunately I was in the boring bit of the audience near the middle who refused to mosh never mind all my best efforts. Ah well.
A quick point on everything else apart from the actual performers. To be frank, I felt a bit let down for a gig of its size (and ticket price!). There was no overtly special lighting. The backdrop was black with a symbol of a slingshot. I felt a little shortchanged. It could be argued though that this meant we had to focus on their music rather than distractions, but when tickets are almost £20, some extra spectacle is necessary.
It would be fair to say that as performers, all eight of them put all their energy into the show. At times I felt that the stage was too small for lead singer, Eugene Hutz. His presence was electric and he had the audience entranced by all the music. It is very difficult to describe, but Gogol Bordello is organised chaos. Everything was exceptionally rehearsed, yet it still managed to feel as though an explosion was imminent any second.
Sergey Ryabtsev on the violin was outstanding to the extent that I had to take a second look because it sounded like a trumpet fanfare. The accordionist – Yuri Lemeshev, liked playing with the audience and he would regularly stand on a raised on a platform on the stage to rev everyone up. A special mention though has to go to Ecuadorian Pedro Erazo, with his sporadic yet excellent MCing. Don’t have a clue what he was saying, but it was very good.
When they reached ‘Start Wearing Purple’ by the end of their set, the crowd were properly pumped and they appreciated the lengthened version. At a 45 minute set, maybe it wasn’t lengthened enough and again I felt a bit short changed.
After this point, things got a bit strange. They went off for the obligatory forced encore (i.e. lights stay dark waiting for the willing screaming of the fans) and when they came back on they played a melancholy track. It evaporated all this energy in one fell swoop. People were leaving and the night kind of trickled away.
On balance feeling like an after party for some Russian revolution, hand on heart I pledge allegiance to Gypsy Punk and to Gogol Bordello. The gig was extremely energetic and I really enjoyed their performance with a better than adequate support act. A bit more value for money would have been welcome though. I would recommend anyone to go and see them if they are at a festival. On their own, the feeling of being short changed couldn’t be helped.
Hayden is @HaydenCohen on Twitter and runs The Furry Mic slam poetry events (which just happens to be this evening at The Pack Horse in Leeds . . . shameless plug Hayden you owe me a pint!) Here’s a very different point of view from Richard Michie who seems to have enjoyed himself rather exorbitantly . . . and has the bruises to show!
Too old for the Mosh Pit!
I first discovered Gogol Bordello, when a friend recommended Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything is Illuminated. After reading the book I searched out the film which stars Elijah Wood. Wood is aided in his search for the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazi’s by a blind driver, and seeing bitch (dog) and Alex, played by Gogol Bordello. Alex’s broken but very illuminating speech throughout makes this a very funny and touching film, you really need to see, once you’ve read the book.
The sound track to Everything is Illuminated is as you’d expect typically Ukrainian music but with a twist. And that’s Gogol Bordello’s own blend of Ukrainian Gypsy Punk. To most people I’ve talked to not particularly a term they’ve ever come across.
So after buying the albums, seeing the film, watching Youtube etc. I was very excited about actually seeing Gogol live. The rest of the audience was just as excited as me, because while we waited for them to take the stage they got very began to mosh to anything which vaguely had an accordion playing on it. Now I’ve stood in pits, for years and always been proud that I could take it. I remember once crowd surfing at Carter USM, you can tell how long ago that was. Some young turks down the front had decided that they were going to slam dance to the Birdy Song were it to be played, I had my eye on them, and sensibly moved to the other side of the pit.
But once Gogol Bordello and the other seven or eight members of the band arrived on stage and began to jump and swirl and point at the audience to get dancing, it made no fucking difference where I stood.
I was moshing.
And I loved it.
But my body didn’t.
Luckily the band flew into Wonderlust King which is one of my favourites at this point my heart hadn’t packed up so I flew around the human washing machine at the front singing my heart out as I pictured myself throwing down vodka and dancing round a Ukranian Gypsy Fire. However this was Leeds. And at that point a very sweaty bloke with a freshly shaved head inadvertently gave me a chin pie. My dream broken I carried on but moved back slightly from the throng. The band got crazier, with the female singer donning a big base drum and leading the audience in another song of freedom, vodka drinking, smashing fascism, and how amazing it is to kiss women. The crowd got crazier too, it felt as though the roof of the refectory would lift off. The highlights were definitely “Start wearing purple” and “American Wedding”, which has amazing lyrics:
Have you ever been to an American Wedding?
Where is the Vodka? Where is marinated Herring?
With words like that you just have to dance, especially when the accordion, violin and guitar solo go on forever and blend into one. There’s just no way you can sum this gig in words, you really did have to be there. For a taste best idea is check out Gogol Bordello on YouTube.
Gogol Bordello played Leeds University Refectory on 27th November 2010.
Richard Michie (@RichardMichie) is a co-founder of Bettakultcha, and a Mosh Pitter (retired)