The best act of the day was hands down Gogol Bordello. They are a must-see if you are into live music -- an international slam fest of theatrics, rock 'n' roll, reggae, gypsy, punk, polka and circus music. I saw them two years ago at Warsaw, and since then they are as popular as ever. It's plain to see, they don't phone in a performance.
It's ironic they were sandwiched between Dan Deacon and Crystal Castles because Eugene had a guitar that said "Drum Machines Have No Soul"
One of the drawbacks of the festival set-up is that bands like Gogol get short-changed. They can only do 40 minutes, leaving out many of the songs and antics that you've become accustom to. They are not truly permitted to be at 100% because they have to make room for the next performer. As you know, Gogol Bordello likes to do all sorts of crazy things on stage and into crowd -- mostly notability, the crowd surfing on top of a bass drum. They couldn't do things like that.
In any event, you can look at the positive in that they stuck to their high-energy, most-popular tracks like "Start Wearing Purple," "Not a Crime" "American Wedding" and "I Would Never Wanna Be Young Again". It was an all-out party atmosphere as Eugene Hütz and his band of thieves tore through their set. I love everything about the band: their attitude, their sound, their sense of fun, their multi-cultural musical background and their look. And if I had the chance, I'd probably like how they smelled.
Actually, this might be my favorite photo of the day
um, it's "start wearing PURPLE"
Posted by: anon | June 24, 2008 at 11:44 AM