Gogol Bordello at the Overture Center
A rare shot of the band actually sitting.
The energy from Gogol Bordello’s set at the Overture Center Sunday night started on the stage, but as soon as frontman Eugene Hütz kicked off his trans-national group’s set of raucous gypsy punk, the frenzy spread quickly throughout the room. The eight members of GB bounded across the stage and leapt onto platforms and within a song or two, the aisles of the seated balcony area were filled with people doing the same.
Gogol Bordello has toured incessantly over the last 11 years, and its live show captures a frenetic pulse indicative of road-tested professionals. The songs are almost formulaic in their ability to incite hysteric jumping in unison, though the intricacies are what make the indefatigable band sound much fresher than its tenure or hair color would suggest. Storming through crowd favorites “Wonderlust King” and “American Wedding,” GB still mustered the energy to play an encore after nearly causing an earthquake at the end of “Start Wearing Purple.”
Partway through the show, Hütz delayed launching into “Break The Spell” just long enough to add, “We’ve got a big fucking spell to break.” Spells are a central theme in GB’s mystique—both the troublesome spells that plague society (poverty, racism, etc.), and the spells that bind diverse peoples together. Sitting between a werewolf, a vampire, and Barney the dinosaur, the latter spell seemed most relevant at the Halloween show. The large banner behind the stage read “Familia Undestructable,” and the group embraced the power of strength in numbers. Multiple security officers also embraced this theme to drag one dancing girl from her spot in an aisle on the balcony.
The opening band, New York-based Brazilian group Forro In The Dark, shared the same emphasis on family. The quintet even took the time to thank the people who worked the lights and sound. It played smooth, percussion-heavy dance music that benefited largely from the added depth provided when Gogol Bordello members Pedro Erazo and Oliver Francis Charles played along.
The pamphlet attached to the Overture Center’s tickets oddly devoted a section to asking audience members to “please use perfumes, aftershaves, and other fragrances in moderation” out of respect for those who might be sensitive to the scent. But by the end of GB’s exhausting two-hour set, it was a different odor that penetrated the Overture Center’s crowd. Hütz said there was a big spell to break, and it took all corners of the auditorium helping out to do it. It also took a lot of sweat.
