If ever a band fed off the crowd, Gogol Bordello is one such animal as the Tempe crowd turned into a group of soccer hooligans, into a jumping, swarming mass of bodies in motion, fists pumping in the air, voices rising to meet the speakers pumping the sound.
Girls in long, flowing hippie dresses off to the side waving their arms about. Boys and girls, young and old in leather, in khakis and in jeans erupting into mosh pits near the center of the stage as Hütz and Co. urged them on further and further, taking them closer and closer to the edge, nearly nonstop for more then an hour. This was more a celebration then a concert, a tapping into something deep inside of you and you and me that said it’s ok to be alive and to grab it, and at least for a short time, to just let go and exist in the joy that is the at-this-very-second.
Ostensibly on tour in support of their latest release Super Taranta, Gogol Bordello ran through the gamut of their four official releases including the overwhelming crowd pleaser “Start Wearing Purple” as well as songs from the band's vast library not culminated in a full length record form.
Simply put, this is a band you must see and by see, I mean to say, prepare to be blown away and experience something unlike anything you’ve ever known. In a day and age where music and bands have nearly come down to a formula in presentation and style, Gogol Bordello exists in that rarest of stratosphere – a true original.
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