"The United Nations" of punk bands

My old roommate gave me a call tonight to inform me that she had an extra ticket to see this gypsy punk band. It sounded cool so I went. It was at the Troc and I haven't been there since Clear Channel took over. I went in with zero expectations and after getting frisked at the front door, I read a sign that said "no moshing, no crowd surfing, no stage diving." I thought, hmmmm, the Troc sure has changed.



We went in and immediately all of our energy levels shot up. The music was like nothing I have ever heard. The band was called Gogol Bordello, and I think The New Yorker said it best when they described them as "something along the lines of a joint gig between a Gypsy wedding band, the Sex Pistols, the Jamaican dub impresario King Tubby, and Kraftwerk."

To me, it sounded like The Count from Sesame Street backed up by a punk band.

And then I, Space Cadet, finally felt the urge to "shake" in the humid room.... this phenomena that humans do called dancing. We all started dancing and moshing.... and thats saying a lot because I really, really don't dance. There were people who were dropping money on the floor and didnt care. We moved closer to the mosh pit, someone ran into the crowd and four people fell on me, but we all got up and kept dancing. We didn't care. The music was THAT GOOD. At the encore the lead singer with the funny mustache stood on a drum and crowd surfed. So yeah, the Troc hasn't changed.

I can't really describe them, you just gotta see em. Preferably live, but until then here is a music video and a crappy video of them performing on Jimmy Kimmel.