I Heart Local Music
Gogol Bordello Interview
Posted Friday, March 7, 2008
"Oh Jesus, look at all the hipsters."
The husband and I were pulling up to the Gogol Bordello show in Kansas City Thursday night. The line stretched nearly around the block. I don't know why we thought there wasn't going to be a humongous turnout, the band's popularity just keeps swelling across the nation with every show that passes.
You may remember reading about my love affair with the band late last year. We've never missed a show when they've come to our neck of the woods. And as always, Elizabeth (one of the singers/dancers/percussionists) chats with us afterward. Always wonderfully polite with a big smile on her face.
The week before the show, Joe and I discovered that Elizabeth has been in movies. Not only movies, but our FAVORITE movie. Of all time. It's called Groove, and is the only good movie about raves. She's a central (and quite loveable) character.
Here's a couple of shots with her in it from the movie:
We lost it. We were so excited. We couldn't believe we've been chatting this whole time with someone who's in a movie that had so much to do with our relationship. We've also forced many many people to watch it, and they fell in love too.
After the Kansas City show, we brought it up with her. She was tickled (and a little bewildered), and seemed fairly excited that we adored the movie so much. We told her we used to be ravers*, and she said she went to a few herself. Later that night we were studying the idea of how we got from our raver days to now. All of us. I turned to the husband and said "So this is what ravers do when they grow up."
But, as my good friend once told me, raves have gone by way of the sock hop. Le sigh.
Now raves aside, the Gogol Bordello show was just fantastic. Those hipsters we were dreading earlier were nowhere to be seen. Not where we were at anyway (in the middle, towards the front, in a mosh pit, etc.). My guess is they were standing way in the back, brushing each other's hair.
After the show we could barely hear (yeah! loud music rocks!). But Elizabeth could hear just fine. She was so gracious enough to give me an **interview on the advantages of playing in the Midwest (oh yeah, that's right, keeping it local on the local music blog). She gave some really great answers, but what you won't see in the interview is the one thing she blurted out first when I asked her what her favorite part of playing in the Midwest and in Kansas was: "Thrift store shopping!"
And here's a little something extra, just a short segment of the show. This is when they played "Start Wearing Purple."
Enjoy!
*On raves. I must point out the misconception that raves are for people who want to do drugs. My husband and I have spent many an hour at raves and shows, not once have we been under the influence there. And the same goes for some of our friends. We all really honestly liked the dancing and the music. Deal with it.
**The interview and concert footage were shot on my flip video camera, and edited in Final Cut.
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