Gypsy Punk Cabaret – it’s not exactly a genre, not just yet. In fact, most people would probably scratch their head at the notion of punk rock played with a violin as a key member of the band, sirens on backing vocals all while fusing traditional Eastern European and Jewish styling. Indeed, Gypsy Punk Cabaret is the sole domain of the frenetic Ukrainian, Eugene Hütz and his traveling side show – Gogol Bordello who descended upon Tempe, Arizona’s Marquee Theater, Oct. 24 with a vengeance.
Gogol Bordello is as much about style as they are substance. Hütz was quoted in the Columbus Dispatch as saying his shows are about communicating the ecstasy that is the heart of Gypsy culture. And commincate the band did to the Tempe crowd.
Ask yourself this - when was the last time you went to a concert and every single member of the band looked as if they were having the time of their life at that very moment?
Typically, someone looks bored on the stage, whether it’s the too-cool-for-school bass player or the drummer stoically in the back keeping his beat. Nothing could be further from truth in the aspect of Gogol Bordello.
Hitting the stage, Gogol Bordello seemed a mix-mash of ideas - the fiddler off to stage left, looked like he might be more comfortable behind the handle bars of a Harley Davidson, The bassist in a simple T-shirt and jeans seemed almost to laid back for this band, and Hütz himself came out, his shirt slashed open down the middle, wearing dangerously tight black jeans, a half crazy, half wild animal look about his eye as he intoned the refrain “DROP THE CHARGES!” from the band’s cult hit “Not A Crime.”
And with the start of the music, you suddenly got it; nothing about this band seems, on the surface, analogous except one thing – the music. The music unites them, forges the mixing of cultures and ideas into a single, raucous vision that explodes upon an unsuspecting crowd
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