Reviews: Tamizdat Launch Party [01-12-2001] Dec 4th 2001, Prague, Club Guru, Zizkov Kicking off to a pell-mell start, bands Gogol Bordello and Metamorphosis arrived at the new Guru club only to find that the PA system had not arrived yet, detaining the concert's start by at least an hour. A beautiful new club with bizarre spaces probably best for dance-music although fully functional for live bands, Guru's atmostphere was hushed and expectant as beer and wine was downed in anticipation of the Bordello folly to come. Metamorphosis played a tight set of their new material, having just alit from recording their newest album outside of Prague, in a well-known studio in Zlin. Cerebral music, yet somehow playful in their drive, Metamorphosis' "contaminated chamber music" comprises a quartet of violin, cello, electric guitar and acoustic guitar. Drums are not at all missed in this group, whose rhythmic and harmonic acumen stun listeners. For some, the driving intensity of Metamorphosis' driving Tim Burton-esque tunes is uncomprehensible; theirs is the pity, for the rich depth and raw nearly-punk edge of Metamorphosis' music would be much at home with any Tzadik, Atavistic, or Alternativa Tentacles crowd. Following the Meta boys, Gogol Bordello took stage. Like the wake-up call that Prague was waiting for, many left still wishing for more. Singer/bandleader Eugene, drummer Elliot, dancer Kathy, fiddler Sergey, saxophonist Ori, guitarist Oren, and accordionist Yuriy splashed onto the floor-bound "stage" to what was then a relatively sedate audience of approximately 200, scattered throughout the caverns of the downstairs club. The stage was thin yet wide, allowing for very little room for Eugene's wild antics. This didn't stop him however, and from the first song until the last, more and more audience members got up from their chairs to dance or jump around or at very least to bob to the Slavic/Gypsy rhythms and Nick Cave-meets-The Pogues deep and dirty sounds of Gogol's multi-faceted posse. A group made of extremely proficient players, the Gogol cast includes down-town NY sax man Ori Kaplan (Ori Kaplan Trio), guitarist Oren hails from famed NY band Firewater, and violinist Sergey and accordionist Yuriy are world-class gypsy-music performers, multi-degreed grads of music schools in Russia and much-playing musicians on the New York/ Brighton Beach music scene. As the night progressed, perhaps climaxing in the faked-orgasm by nutty and fantastic dancer Kathy after the song "Start Wearing Purple," crowds pressed in with people (including some rather well-known Prague journalists!) letting loose to the chaos and just dancing like mad. Changing dimensions for the last couple of songs, Eugene hurled himself (still don't know how he did it) from the downstairs stage onto the upstairs platform where the soundengineers sat, singing and madly whipping his bandjaxed acoustic guitar to crowds craning to see where the hell he'd gone. Altogether, it was a duly unforgettable night of music, and Prague is just waiting for Gogol Bordello to come through again! Those of us in Tamizdat somehow didn't do much speaking or shameless self-advertising this night, so perhaps the sense of Tamizdat's Launch in some literal application did not take root. For Tamizdat, for anyone wanting to know what really makes us tick, the music itself is most important and whenever the music is good and happening it's the right time to just let it shine.
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