Concert Review: Gogol Bordello, Friday, May 29, at the Beaumont

REVIEW BY ABBIE STUTZER

If you ever attend a Gogol Bordello show, expect to see wiry, unshaven front man, Eugene Hütz, sport everything from canvas zipper clad pants and sneakers to bright striped belts and high heels.

Hütz and his fellow rocking vagabonds will typically down drinks, bend barricades to interact with the crowd, and dance with the band’s beautiful face-painted percussionists. Gogol’s quick-paced songs and driving beat demand the band put all their energy into their performance.

On Friday night, Gogol Bordello used every ounce of energy, sweat, and emotion they had to put on a hell of powerful show.

The Beaumont was packed when I arrived. A large chunk of the crowd had already flocked around the stage and was waiting in anticipation of the first act, Man Man.

I’d never heard of the Philadelphia band before I came to the show, and I won’t soon forget them. They sounded like a circus cabaret act. Many of the group’s songs swung — some slow and drunken, others fast and chaotic. Man Man incorporated a saxophone, a piano, a xylophone, a trumpet, kazoos, metal pans, and a myriad of other noisemakers to create their unique sound.

The energy Man Man brought to the stage was intense. Each member danced, screamed, jumped and convulsed in jerky coordination, like the Rock-afire animals run amok. They finished with a raucous tune that inspired one of the band’s members to jump on a speaker and halfway hang from the ceiling. The crowd was totally amped for the gypsy-punk show to follow.