Renegades of Punk: Gogol Bordello

Every once in a while, a band comes along that changes the way you view the world.  For me, one such band was the the Gypsy Punk caravan known as Gogol Bordello.

Just try not to idolize this man, I dare you.

Flash back to the March of 2010.  A young Beckett Mufson is on the rise, almost done with high school and becoming restless with life as he knows it.  Enter mister Trenton Hall, a gentleman, a scholar, and a true punk. Trent calls me up and says, "hey, I'm gonna change your life."  He took me to my first ska punk show and opened my eyes to the punk rock lifestyle I enjoy today.  The first band he and his girlfriend, T-dawg, showed me was Gogol Bordello.  This glorious, multi-national, multi-genre, cultural mutt of a band struck me in a unique way.  The energy in their music is apparent even in the studio recorded tracks I was first exposed to, but nothing holds a candle to their live show.  Put yourself in the place of any audience member in the following video and see why I now look back at my life as pre-Gogol and post-Gogol.

Dancing, singing, jumping, drinking, screaming, shouting, Gogol Bordello creates a party on the stage and injects their boundless energy directly into the audience.  They embody the simple guitar structure and fast paced drum lines that are hallmarks of punk rock music, but these alone are not why they are truly Punk in my eyes.

Eugene Hutz, mustachioed frontman extraordinaire, is Ukranian, and he formed a band with a Russian violinist and a Russian accordionist, an Israeli guitarist, an Ethiopian basist, and several other members from all over the world.  Together they fused their collective values, histories, skills and personalities to create something entirely new.  Punk is very accepting of outside influence, from folk to rockabilly to surf, and Gypsy culture is the latest infusion to hit the scene.  Folk in general has made a resurgence in rock n roll music, as evidenced by Bon Iver's victory at the Grammys, but Bon Iver channels the softer, simpler (and sleep-inducing) heritage of folk music.

PARTY. ANIMAL.

Conversely, Gogol Bordello hearkens back to the campfires and alcohol-induced celebrations that poor minorities and malcontents used to liven up their ostracized communities.  In these uncertain economic times, Gogol Bordello provides a similar carefree atmosphere in which human beings of every ethnicity, nationality, and creed can dance and sing and forget their problems in the revelry.  Countless sources give Gogol Bordello concerts rave reviews, and when I saw them open for System of a Down, it was something of a dream come true.  Their ecstatic and chaotic live show is the second characteristic that makes Gogol Bordello so punk.

The third characteristic is their political activism.

Singer Eugene Hutz has lived through the American immigration process, and the injustice he witnessed there fuels the angry and less carefree side of Gogol Bordello's repertoire.  He advocates for many anti-globalization movements, and sees the mutation and growth of culture and society as the only sensible way forward.  This counter-cultural, anti-establishment attitude manifests in many of their tracks: from Immigraniada, We Comin' Rougher (shown above) on their newest album, to Not a Crime on their most popular album, to Passport, on their first album, Gogol Bordello's passionate activism is apparent throughout their discography.

Eugene Hutz and Madonna pictured above inconspicuously staring at each other's chests.

And yet, despite their clearly counter-culture aesthetics and political orientations, Eugene Hutz can turn around and play a totally awkward duet with Madonna or collaborate with Gucci.  Gogol Bordello is effortlessly punk, and these forays into pop culture prove how little they actually have to work at their punk attitude.  These men and women care about their culture and their music, and go about it in the most carefree way.  They don't adhere to the maxims and dogma of the punk rock lifestyle, which, in my mind, makes them all the more worthy to be called Renegades of Punk.