English
Listening to Gogol Bordello, without knowing about the true origin of the band, can easily lead us to imagine about what is the most radical Balkan rock (if there truly exists such a music style). A live show in Lisbon will be in March 7th. The truth is that the band finds a better resemblance with a style usually defined as “gypsy punk”, after all a simple fusion involving punk rock and inspirations arriving from gypsy traditional music.
The main figure on Gogol Bordello is Eugene Hütz, lead vocals and guitar. Born in the Ukraine, Hütz ran away from his country right after the nuclear accident of Chernobyl. During the following years he travelled around Europe with a refugee status and finally managed to immigrate to the United States in 1991. The group (that got its name from the junction of the surname of Nikolai Gogol, the famous Russian writer, and the word “bordello”, which means brothel in Italian) began its musical journey in New York City, a few years after.
In 1999 Gogol began to play and it was also on that year that they recorded their first album, “Voi-La Intruder”. The truth is that the great impulse to their career happened due to the deed of a pop star. Madonna was impressed by the band after getting to know them through British film director Guy Ritchie, her ex-husband. In 2007, the artist decided to invite Hütz do act on her first short film, titled “Filth and Wisdom”, and still on that same year Eugene Hütz and Sergey Ryabtsey played with her, live on stage, on the Live Earth show, in London. Since then, Gogol Bordello’s career gained a new stamina, which eventually culminated with the band signing their first contract with a major record company, American Recordings (a part of Sony/Columbia) to release the album “Trans-Continental Hustle”, in 2010. The record reflected the profound influence that the move to Brazil developed with Hütz, after moving to the South American country in 2008. That is easily recognized on two song titles, ‘Uma Menina Uma Cigana’ (meaning One Girl, One Gypsy in Portuguese) and ‘In the Meantime in Pernambuco’ (Pernambuco being the name of a Brazilian state).
One of Gogol Bordello’s major feature as a band still is their incredible and never ending capacity for their live shows. Sometimes, you just don’t need to be a fan of the group to be completely overwhelmed with their unlimited energy and their radical disposition of giving away everything on stage. The band remains to have a provocateur attitude, almost in an indisputable way. Eugene Hütz’s band presents a natural and fresh approach, contrasting with several other rock bands that seem to force both attitude and song themes to get to the audience. Gogol’s gypsy punk has everything what it is needed to keep on giving a new energy to the world’s rock and roll.
For more information about the show, please check out the venue’s website at http://www.gogolbordello.com/us/event/2011/03/07/campo-pequeno-bullring-lisbon-portugal
thecultureman
A way for you to see what could be a great live show this March 7th could be to check out Lisbon accommodation and enjoy a great time in this unique Southern European city.?
