Conorworld in Canadialand

Canadialand Part I

So I have finally returned from my spur of the moment trip to North America. Back not long ago in December I kind of well, how can I say it, I kind of cracked and decided to drop everything and get the bloody hell out of Dublin. It was London I decided to go for a few days. However during the process of booking my flight to Blighty I got distracted by a cheap flight to Toronto. In the end I ended up booking a flight to London and then another to Canada in March.

Gypsy Punk in Canadialand

So I arrived on the Sunday the 3rd of March into Toronto where my good Canadian friend Steve picked me up at the airport by saying “So, would you like to go to see Gogol Bordello? Like right now?” Even after 12 hours of traveling I ended up watching what has been aptly described as gypsy punk. I had heard about these guys before and simply decided to discard them to the wayside of my attention. I’m sorry luv but I just don’t do that sort of thing. It was also around the same time that Madonna, the musical vampire that she is (she MUST be a vampire, just look at her aged 50) adopted them, robbed them from a T in the Park appearance to parade them in front of millions at Live 8 or whatever it was as her back up band. I don’t know why that irked me but I had no patience for them afterwards. But I couldn’t say no to a free ticket and the excitement of my first gig in Canada so it was straight to the venue.

It was kind of appropriate in some way that the venue was in the docks. Dark and seedy it seemed apt for a band like Gogol Bordello. It started off bad for me. Little did I expect that in Ontario that when a gig is open to all they have strict drinking policies. So we were shunted off quite briskly by security men to the drinking pen, like alcoholic sheep where we HAD to drink our alcohol there and not take it out. Conor don’t like that. SO it was from here that we got the beginning of the gig. As a band they look like a rabble of drunken Romanian labourers from the Caucesceu era at a dodgy wedding and sounded like the house band you would find at such a wedding. However it ripped through the crowd. And here’s me thinking all Canadians are calm, quiet and reserved. No, there goes a leg there, a plastic cup here and was that a sock? Hmmm. Odd. However somehow I was swept up in it as I apprehensively ventured out of the drink pen.

Gogol Bordello are undeniably a great band live but I just didn’t get it. Maybe I am not astute or open to such world rhythms blasted through some sort of musical particle accelerator that defines their sound at times. They are an acquired taste but a band that must be experienced I suppose sometime even if you’re not really into the sound of Moldovan wedding bands.

www.gogolbordello.com