GOGOL BORDELLO
Gogol Bordello, Brooklyn Bowl, Philadelphia, PA. 12/30/24.
Gogol Bordello is a once in a lifetime show. Going into this show I knew I was going to see something special. There were 2 openers for the show the first one was Pons, a no wave punk band from New York City, they were the perfect first opener for the show with their similarity to Gogol Bordello’s energy. The second band to play was Puzzled Panther, a rock band under the Casa Gogol Records umbrella. They instantly got the crowd into their set and after a few songs they brought out Eugene Hutz from Gogol Bordello to rip guitar for them. When it was time for Gogol to come out they came out in the dark waving to the crowd and then Eugene came out with the bottle of Tito’s gave it a good spike and everybody knew it was go time. I was blown away by the entire band’s movement on the stage it was incredibly coordinated weaving in and out between each other and members playing together. Early into the set they played an all time hit of theirs with “Wonderlust King” which got everyone in attendance jumping up and down with the music. Another highlight was the song “Immigraniada” a hard punk song and brought out Puzzled Panther to sing along and rally the crowd. When it was time for their all time hit “Start Wearing Purple” when Eugene started playing the electric guitar he decided it sounded fuzzy and switched to acoustic guitar. By the time everyone realized that’s what they were playing they erupted in cheer and sang along to the entire song. The audience looked like an ocean wave flowing up and down when the chorus would drop. They closed out with “Pala Tute” before leaving the stage. The Philly crowd hollered for the band to come out still wanting more and eventually was able to will them onto the stage for 4 more songs. It was an incredible night that I haven’t been able to stop talking about since the show.
Shot and Written by Jonah van Bemmelen.
