Gogol Bordello

Webster Hall; Sun 27, Mon 28, Tue 29

The end of the year signals a host of traditions: post-Christmas sales, Dick Clark, agonizing over a reasonable resolution and, more recently, the invasion of Webster Hall by Gogol Bordello. Eugene Hütz & Co. bring their hyperactive blend of Eastern European, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern musical traditions—tempered with a heavy dose of dub and Gypsy-punk—back to the East Village, where they had their start a decade ago.

And in a way, these concerts have quickly become one of the city’s more heartwarming holiday institutions. If Gogol Bordello’s goal, as the mustachioed Hütz has often said, is to create a cultural revolution, they could do worse than uniting seemingly disparate cultures through a musical common denominator. “Music makes it possible to make the contradictions of life sound harmonious, at least for the duration of a song,” the band’s Facebook page proclaims. Its breakthrough album, Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike (2005), was a high-octane homage to Romany tunes, borrowing the moves and sounds of everyone from Goran Bregovic to Bela Bartók. The 2007 follow-up, Super Taranta!, tangoed with Neapolitan jams, reggae and ska.

Noble though Gogol’s cause may be, spending a night with the group is also a ridiculously entertaining way to enter 2010. In addition to the New Year, they’ll be celebrating the triple threat of October’s Live from Axis Mundi (shockingly, their first live album), November’s solo debut of Ethiopian bassist Tommy T and a new studio release set to drop in the coming months.—Olivia Giovetti

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