Events
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Gogol Bordello Live
@ Coachella – Indio, CA May 2007
By Robert Young
Photo By Tim Skaland
As I walked into the Mojave Tent, a mix of pure adrenaline and exhaust took over as I became locked into the stage and felt completely apart of the crowd. We were one entity, here to rock in the name of Nikolai Gogol.
The lights went low around 11:06pm and the crowd began to hum. The drone turned into a roar as Eugene, Sergey, Elliot, Yuri, Oren and Gogol newbie, Thomas, made their way out to the front of the stage. Amidst the roar of the crowd, Eugene picked up his guitar and attempted to say something over the crowd’s unified screams. All I caught was something about a “new song”. With that, Eugene and Sergey displayed their beautiful mix of slap-twang-old-world guitar and screeching, Eastern violin. Along with the rest of the band, they bum rushed the show with the newest of Gogol Bordello classics. The crowd began to dance and clap so hard I was temporarily thrown off my feet. The whole tent, packed to capacity, began to move as one giant wave of reverence as the band broke into “Sally,” the lead song off of their mainstream album debut, Gypsy Punks Underdog World Strike. The kick from Elliot’s backbeat hit my heart hard; the primal nature of the night swept me away. I was not ready for what was about to happen next.
A combination of exhaustion, musical trance and lack of oxygen sent me into a communal euphoria no drug on earth could have given me. It was this euphoria that dulled my attention to the lights going off. Suddenly, my senses were assaulted as the whirlwind that was Segey’s violin screamed through the dark of the Mojave Tent, cutting apart Eliot’s fast-paced, two-tempo punk beat. Sergey’s violin played higher and higher and higher as Eliot played faster and faster. Red, dim lights hit the stage revealing Pam and Elizabeth, the two riot starters of the Gogol Bordello tribe, running turbulently around the stage. Just when I thought I couldn’t a handle any more adrenaline or build up: silence. The crowd stopped for what felt like an eternity, but was in reality only a second. We all stared in awe at the band that was our insane, eastern brethren; tonight they led us into a world that was ages old and thousands of miles away to an animalistic and unforgiving orgy of the senses that was about to be taken up a notch.
A high-pitched shrill cut through the darkness and sent spiders crawling up the backbone of every animal at Coachella. The lights blasted along with the music as the band broke into the saga of rebellion and tragedy that is “I Would Never Want to be Young Again.” The crowd pumped fists into the air and screamed back in our primal language as Pam and Liz screamed to us. It looked as if Eugene had lost his mind -- his snarl and moustache curled as he glared with a crazy eye to the audience. The crowd was possessed as people twirled, moshed, danced, hugged and sang with one another, not against. I’d never felt such a mix of rage, love and adrenaline in all my life.
The band was a sonic and visual force until the end of the night. Songs like “Dogs Were Barking” and “Start Wearing Purple” were amazing works that highlighted the “heavy bottom” sound of the band’s new bass player, Thomas, who looked right at home. “60 Revolutions” and “Dogs Were Barking” brought out the rage and command of the band’s MC Pedro, and the smooth and mysterious melody of Yuri’s accordion. “East Infection” and parts of “60 Revolutions” stripped the band momentarily to its punk roots, with Eliot’s drum and Oren’s thrashing guitar-cuts working in simplistic harmony.
After what seemed like an eternity-long party, the band closed with, “Baro Foro.” Everyone knew this was it since the night was closing and we were coming closer and closer to reality. No one really wanted to come back, but we had to, so we danced as hard as we could for as long as we could, clapping along to Eugene’s words: “Call your best friend let’s take her with us/ Only one day, only one time. For they could never understand us/ So Fuck em.” Then… BOOM! The full power of Gogol Bordello came out with Pam and Liz adding percussion to the group. The crowd blasted into the air and danced as if it was their last moment on earth. Our gypsy captors reached out to us as Eugene and Pam turned her bass drum into a stand and surfed out to the crowd.
As I watched the two stand on top of the crowd-surfed kick drum, it dawned on me what a beautiful image I was watching: this moment was one of unity -- a symbiotic relationship. The band put themselves out there for this audience and it was this audience who decided to take in this band and raise them up, literally. This massive audience was supporting this band here, and all over the world.
This moment made me think about a conversation I had with Eugene back in December as he, Thomas and Sergey rode in my car to the KSSU studio to do an interview. We had begun talking about the shitty music on the radio and I asked him a question that seemed to have too easy of an answer: “Does the media control/influence the people in this country? Or, do we, the people, control/influence the media?” He quickly replied that of course the media controlled the people and that this was an obvious answer and an even dumber question. As my mind came back to the Mojave Tent, and saw Pam and Eugene being lifted into the air by this legion of exhausted fans, I thought to myself that Eugene was wrong all those months ago. People only think they don’t control the media, but this is where the media’s power comes from. The people can, and do, control the media and tonight was proof.
The media tells us to love Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, and many people do. Would these people crowd surf Spears or Hilton on a kick drum after a day of physical brutality? Probably not. But even if they would do this for Spears and Hilton, would they do it for them 10 years from now, after the media says not to like them? Probably not. And so it seems that Eugene was right all those months ago, the media dictates our thoughts and actions. But, tonight, in the Mojave Tent, Eugene proved himself wrong. Here was a group, shunned by the media for so long, told by the industry that their music was too weird, or that people in their group were too old or “unmarketable”. Yet, these audience members, the people, who had never been told to like Gogol Bordello, packed the Mojave Tent and carried this band upon their tired, sun-burned shoulders…literally.
I admit some months ago, when Eugene snapped back his answer to me, I was a bit taken back, but now I see that the true power to control comes from us, the people. This is the “rock revolution” Eugene and Gogol Bordello speak of all the time. If we the people stopped, and thought and said the truth about what we wanted more often, then all would see that the media has no real power. The industry would have to make popular what the population wanted, not what a few “gate keepers” deem as acceptable. This is modern revolution and this is why Gogol Bordello is now getting so popular, because the people demand it. Tonight, in the Mojave Tent at Coachella, an “unmarketable” band that was not supposed to make it finished their set and said “thank you” to a packed tent of roaring fans -- their soldiers. Tonight, the “gypsy rock revolution” and all of her children had won one more battle in the war against the “gate keepers.”
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