Gogol Bordello Presents Scream Of My Blood @ Gramercy Theatre New York, NY 11/21/24
Bill: Gogol Bordello (Eugene Hütz & Sergey Ryabtsev/Q&A with Eugene, Sergey and the films editors and directors/Film: Scream of My Blood: A Gogol Bordello Story (2023)
Venue: Gramercy Theatre, New York, NY
Date: 11/21/24
Door: $35
10pm: Gogol Bordello (Eugene Hutz & Sergey Ryabsev acoustic)
Active: 1999 (New York, NY)
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9:40 pm Q&A with Eugene Hütz, Sergey Ryabsev, Nate Pommer, Eric Weinrib & Beverly Chase
8pm Scream of My Blood: A Gogol Bordello Story
Time flies. Watching Scream of My Blood for the first time in the year it has been out sure put an explanation point on that. Eugene managed to make a small theatre tour with the film, its directors, producers and the two longest running band members of Gogol Bordello. People come and go in a blip in this movie and it's odd for me to have actual concentrated memories from when I helped run their label in 2001-2003. They have been through many labels and members since. You can see players in the band pop up with 6-year runs retired many years ago as familiar faces from years gone by flash on the screen. They had a 17-hour documentary that had to get chopped down to 100 minutes. Not even Eugene could be happy with what was left out.
Perspective is a big deal. I ran into Eugene while I was buying a ticket for this show last minute at the box office. The computer broke down and of course Eugene was dealing with his friends whose names somehow didn't make the guest list window. The multitasking worker was dealing with the system crash delay of selling my ticket, dealing with Eugene who needed to be on stage in 10 minutes and talking to somebody from afar. 5 minutes later I was still at said window and Eugene wryly noted to me upon his follow up that he had been reduced to ticket agent. Somehow, I found this inevitable and amusing all at the same time. End of tour homecoming became just another day in the life. Not even simple acts of commerce and accommodation can be taken for granted.
Since I came in while Eugene already was working with Paul McCartney's management around 2001, about a year after I first saw the band at the Leonard Street Knitting Factory pre-Mehanata at the Bulgarian Bar on Canal Street (or maybe near the start). I got to know that band on the way up and was actually at some of the things in the film that made the cut on the bands rise. Watching remembered footage as historical artifact can be jarring because 20-25 years doesn't seem "that" long ago. In the eyes of Gogol Bordello's evolution and what is going on today however has made for a fading blip.
Eugene looks back at these years fondly because there was a freedom that he rode. He knew before he was famous that he was going to be famous and told me as much back then. I've seen people rise to fame before having a happy accident and some work. Eugene was somebody that had more of a calculated, driven approach to take on the world. When Eugene noted during the Q&A that he had to grow up, well it was a symptom of the universe as one of his non-ideologue idols noted. Now the world Eugene helped create for good in the name of artistry is shrinking. There was a time (2007-2012) that Moscow was a normal part of a European tour for Gogol Bordello. Now in a world of sideism even the artists are forced into sides. An audience member asks if a Serbian collab like Quantum Utopia could ever happen again. "No" was a terse final answer due to state alliance decisions beyond their controls.
Growing up has made Agnostic Front's early and best song "Victim In Pain" into an wistful acoustic immigrant's rallying cry in recent years. The film hammers home that "old school" US for Eugene was closer to 10 years after the dawn of hardcore even as he developed his fringe tastes in 80's Ukraine. Eugene's development was framed by Sonic Youth established enough to play Kiev in 1989 and Fugazi not Minor Threat was another formative reference point. American Hardcore with a parent that was into "old school rock" once snuck into former Soviet Union on 10-play x-rays were powerful enough to help give Eugene direction.
Eugene is going to continue to grind along terrain that has made his original mission possible. Father time, politics, war all get in the way. This is a "growing up" that is imposed on us whether we like it or not even if the issue of economics has been conquered. When you watch Eugene in Ukraine performing for soldiers and people in bomb shelters while air raid protocols are in effect you can see the worldwide party mission is over even if the glass of vodka is full. You can also see power in music, power in defiant resistance, but it requires the ability to seize the moment and not care whether you live or die. You, your community, your friends and your family may be killed or suffer consequences in the process of your defiance. What will the Bastards throw your way? Do you fight on or live another day? The happy medium is a sliding scale. I'm not necessarily talking 100% about the hot burner news topics of the day here.
We could go on and on about how Eugene's Multi Kulti vision that he keeps as an international touring force on a large club level all these years has been systemically chipped at by the pricks inside and outside. Change is inevitable whether desired or not. Eugene cracked 50, so he knows there is a finite time to grind with the gifts of youthful audacity life bestowed upon him.
His friends that are supposed to be on the list have to get out of a cold miserable rain, after all.
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