To say that the Gogol Bordello show was a hell of a party would be an understatement! The energy was infectious, and I find myself torn as to whether or not I'm surprised at the broad cross section of society represented in the crowd, including the lower level jammed to the stage bunch that bounced and swayed in unison with the occasional crowd surfer that would pop out in the midst and be quickly fished off the crowd by quick acting security guards.

The opening act... well they were time filler, really quite a forgettable two piece "band" if you will that became very boring and repetitive after about half a song, in fact I've already forgotten their name, "apostle something.." I think.

The sold out crowd at the Odeon, which I assume was beyond capacity as following the show I talked with a couple of people who made it in without tickets at all, was  beyond eclectic and from what I could see ranged form 16 to 60 with plenty of representation at either end of the scale. the attire ranged from your average jeans and button up shirt to fishnets, multiple facial piercings and mohawks to vintage dresses and hairstyles.

 When it comes to the music, Gogol was great, playing for what I believe was nearly two hours, the selection of songs was very familiar with crowd favorites like "Start wearing Purple" and "Not a Crime" mixed in with what I assume are a few newer songs from the upcoming new album. My only complaint is that it ended without "American Wedding" or "Supertheory Supereverything"

While the band did make the crowd work for the encore when they did return to the stage it wasn't for a short time, the multisong encore included a couple of acoustic numbers with just Eugene with guitar and microphone, followed up by a handful of tracks with the full band including a 15-20 minute jam session around a track I was unfamiliar with that was full of incredible energy.

The crowd went totally nuts every time the ladies came out onto the stage, with new outfits nearly every time filling the roles of performers as much as backup vocalists, and percussionists.

I could go on and on, however it's 1:15am and I will be up and off to work at 6am so I'm going to cut it short, for those who didn't make it out I recommend checking out the videos posted on this site, searching Youtube for more and do so knowing that Gogol Bordello is ten if not a hundred times more enjoyable live so that not only will you run out and grab the latest album and their back catalog, but not fail to go next time this crazy bunch rolls through town again (hopefully).

To Eugene and the band, Thanks for a great show!