8/3 -- Gogol Bordello at Toad's Place

I had a ton of fun at the Gogol Bordello show this past Sunday (Aug. 3). I knew the band would put on a high-energy, crazy show sparking a lot of dance and "friendly moshing" in the crowd -- I was already warned and shown YouTube videos -- but the experience was better than anyone could describe to me, or even show me. There was a huge crowd in Toad's Place, which was a really cool surprise -- I mean, I know the band is highly praised in the underground music world, but I didn't hear about the show selling out, and I didn't think that many people in the area had heard of or were into Gogol Bordello.

But this was the kind of show where someone could bring a friend who hadn't heard much of the band who would end up getting really into it. I'll admit, I was a girlfriend in this situation, so this is proof.

The show was just a lot of fun. What really struck me was how cultural the "gypsy punk" music was just that, gypsy and punk music with Eastern European sounds fused together. I later read more about the band and learned from their website that they're made up of immigrants and refugees from Russia, the Ukraine and Israel, which makes them as much a statement as a band. And they make a big statement on stage with their shirtless lead singer jumping around and working the entire stage, other band members wearing feather collars, shaking tambourines and screaming and the two petite girls dancing on the side and later banging on a marching bass drum and crashing cymbals. Their energy was contagious. Their loyal fans were singing along and dancing hard, and their new fans joined in.

Toad's Place is my favorite concert venue because of its small size and intimate atmosphere. This year alone, I've seen shows as different from each other as The Mars Volta, where I started in the front of the crowd near the stage and had to move out after two songs so I could have enough space to breathe, and Daniel Johnston, where there were a lot of stage leaners singing along with maybe as much emotion as Daniel had when writing his songs. The Gogol Bordello show was different from any show I've seen at Toad's Place (or anywhere) but like the other shows, the crowd reaction made it feel right.