U2, Gogol Bordello and more

Earlier I posted my memory of the Dire Straits concert I’d gone to with Chip and Gil in 1992.

Then what arose in consciousness was a series of memories of other performances. A trip down Google Photos memory lane produced this album.

There are other photos that I want to recover, but this will have to do for now.

The images at the top are from the U2 concert I went to with Dana and Mira in 2009

Most of the photos are from Gogol Bordello.

Gogol Bordello

I’ve been a Gogol Bordello fanboy since 2007.

I first read about them in Rolling Stone. The first song I heard them do was this YouTube rendition of “Not a Crime.”

I fell in love.

And then, “Start wearing purple.”

I listened to YouTube videos of concerts. And fell in love with their finale at Coachella 2017: “Undestructable” and “Baro Foro.”

Performances

I went to see them on October 11, at the Roxy in Boston. The rest of the family went with me.

Flashbulb moment: I’m hanging around, outside the mosh pit and Mira gets me to step in and crowd surf. I do. It’s a rush. I spend most of the rest of the concert getting moshed around.

Flashbulb moment: in the MTA station on the way back. Konrad’s wearing a purple shirt, soaked with sweat.

The shirt survives. The sweat is gone.

Eugene Hutz

Eugene Hütz, the frontman for the band, is the incarnation of human energy. He comes out wearing layers of clothing. As the group gets going and he gets going, he pulls off layer after layer. He ends the set shirtless.

Two days later they’re playing in Lewiston, and I get my buddy Jim to drive down with me.

Flashbulb: I can see where they park.

Flashbulb: The cops stop us on the way back, and Jim tells them about GB. The cops have a laugh.

A year or two later we drive to Burlington Vermont to see them. We check into a hotel. The desk clerk is a Russian immigrant woman, tall and thin—one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen. We head into town, rock with GB, then back to the hotel. The next morning we drive back, listening to a GB mix I’ve put on my iPod.

A couple of years later they’re at the House of Blues, and I see them with Konrad.

Then we skip forward to 2016, and Jim and I see them in Portland again, We drive down and overnight with our friends Rita and Peter, then back the next day.

And then they played.

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