Video: Gogol Bordello, Day 3, Coachella

Posted Monday, May 05, 2008 @ 10:55 in Video by Michael Vazquez

A little Jack and lysergic with your Monday? A Coachella Flashback...

I always thought Eguene Hutz was cool -- from his downtown (NYC) parties where he and his posse DJed, to the first time I saw him on a festival stage at the now-defunct Aamsterjam festival's second stage. Backstage that  day, I pointed out Grandmaster Flash, who was appearing on the same stage -- to Eugene, whom I'd just met, and he was --understandably -- in awe of the legendary DJ. I thought about Eugene's Kangol later when I saw him in "Everything Is Illuminated" (on dvd), for which he was perfectly cast. 

This is an appreciably bugged-out chase scene of a raw opening set; a few jagged edits; a few more missed shots; general pandemonium with the odd effect scattered throughout...don't be unnerved by the slo-mo strangulation nor the rabbit-hole weirdness...also, camera-person appearing here is not me.

Five 'clock on the main stage at any festival's final day can, depending on circumstances, potentially be a tough gig where folks might not feel the automatic pull toward the stage the way they would on say, Saturday or Friday afternoon, where there's still a night to spare.  But this was not the case at all for Gogol Bordello who enjoyed a huge number of pre-existing fans, who, without a moment to spare, sang-along from the opening line, contagioning a full-on massive, lost temporarily in the throes of arm-raising and pogoing. The sounds here are just all over the place, tho' of course Gogol Bordello's sound is all their own -- and their name is as ingenious as "Joy Division"...

 

 

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