Gogol Bordello

What could a multiethnic gypsy-punk band from New York and a redneck country singer from Akron possibly have in common? Not a whole lot, as it turns out. Gogol Bordello's stage shows are whirling and celebratory, with the flashing colors and jangling bangles of a full-fledged circus show. Frontman Eugene Hütz dances across the stage like a tangled-stringed puppet, dripping sweat and howling about losing his mind, accompanied enthusiastically by skittering fiddles, the oom-pa-pa of accordion, and tambourine-wielding dancing girls. It's a bizarre but beautiful blend of influences culminating into a constant, joyful mosh fest. David Allan Coe, on the other hand, forged his solid twang in the flames of 1970s outlaw country. He wholly embodies the two-headed masculinity of that movement, with genuinely tender renditions of "Will You Lay with Me (In a Field of Stone)" alongside such feminist standards as "Pussy Whipped Again." A peer of Cash and Kristofferson, the cranky sexagenarian won't be crowd-surfing, and any acrobatics onstage will be wholly attributable to his pickin' hand. But the two acts, divergent though they may be, are paragons of their respective genres. And, improbably, they'll both appear at the Cabooze tonight: Gogol Bordello outside with Dusty Rose and the River Band. All Ages.
Thu., June 12, 6 p.m., 2008