Gogol Bordello at The Grove
On Thursday, a small group of us headed down to Anaheim to see Gogol Bordello. They were playing at The Grove, meaning we would have to slug it out through rush hour traffic.
If you’ve never heard of Gogol, think “Gypsy Punk” and whatever image comes to your head is pretty much on the money. They are nuts. But nuts often makes for a great live show. And a great show it was.
I snagged a snippet of “Start Wearing Purple.”
(You see a slightly more coherent version here.)
Rick, being the man, was able to snag us backstage passes to boot.
That’s the lead singer in the middle, Eugene Hütz. To the far left is Yuri Lemeshev, the accordion player and a hardcore World of Warcraft player. So in a nutshell, a touring rockstar and a nerd.
I haven’t played WoW in a bit, but I asked him the standard questions about level/race/class and so on. He had a level 70 human warrior and mainly solos. They have WiFi on the tour bus, so he can play & party at the same time. Right now his main focus is grinding to get enough gold for an epic mount.
I think my ears were ringing for the next two days (perhaps proof I’m getting old?), but it was worth it.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:16 am
I was there, too. I’ve seen them 3 or 4 times now. I have to say that, although they were great, I’ve seen better performances. Or I should say that whoever it was who set the speakers volume so loud should be hanged. It was so loud that it was impossible to hear what they were saying or even what the music was at times. I’ll never understand why they do that.
I adored “Alcohol” with the Spanish acoustic guitar. My favorite, I think. I moved around to various areas during the night trying to get photos, and when they sang Alcohol, I was near the back. I loved seeing everyone swing, sway, and sing along with it!
I ENVY YOU SO MUCH for getting a backstage pass. *envies*
Thanks for sharing!