Gogol Bordello Broke the Spell

Warning: Non UNH post. This is basically a concert review that I just want to share for any other members of the Gogol community who might stumble across this.

Last night Gogol Bordello set the Boston House of Blues on fire with an unreal performance that lasted about two hours. Forro in the Dark got the night started with about 45 minutes of their Brazilian reggae sound, but when Eugene Hutz of Gogol took the stage to singalong with Forro's "Nonsensical" (the song that gave me the title idea for this blog) you knew that the night would be all about Hutz and his captivating stage presence.

Different concert obviously, but a similar performance:

Gogol took the stage right at 8 p.m. ripping of hits new and old beginning with "Tribal Connection," "Not a Crime" and "Wanderlust King" before the band transitioned into their latest album playing "My Companjera," "Raise the Knowledge," "Last One Goes the Hope,"Pala Tute," "Immigraniada," "Break the Spell," "Sun is on my Side" and perhaps the best performance of the night with "When Universes Collide." The band also played "Mishto," "American Wedding" (while a fan proposed to his girlfriend on stage) and an almost hip-hop esq version of "Start Wearing Purple" that had the entire house jumping and screaming. (Well, actually the entire house did that all night.) The band took a quick break before performing an encore of "Think Locally, Fuck Globally" and an extended version of "Sacred Darling." The band then stood across the stage and took their bows. Hutz gathered his band of immigrants and gypsies around him for a quick chat before saying to the audience "we got an early start tonight, so we're gonna do a few more." The crowd went nuts and Hutz introduced their next song saying, "we just just got back from Ireland and we were there for St. Patrick's Day so we'd like to take that spirit back with us" and they performed and awesome version of the Dubliners "Dirty Old Town" (made famous by the Pogues) and they finally ended their set with a great version of their old hit "Alcohol." When the concert finally ended my brother turned to me and said something along the lines of "No one else in Boston had as much fun as the people at that concert" (including the members of the band). - I may have missed a few songs, I'm writing this off memory.

This is from a different concert, but it is the same final two songs as last night:

In short, Gogol Bordello may be the best live band around. Adjectives like "energetic" and "charismatic" don't even begin to describe their performances. I've seen them 8 times since my senior year of high school and I wouldn't have done that if it wasn't worth it (including twice in Philly - a 7 hour drive-  and twice more in NYC). If you consider yourself a fan of live music in general then do yourself a favor and see Gogol the next time they roll by your town. You won't regret it.