Part 3: Post-Show Purple People
So, I have been hinting at this so-called review in a few posts now. I labelled it a concert review, but it has turned into so much more than that. It’s an ode to music, punk spirit, Purple People and community. My notes started off in Dutch, but then quickly veered into English because of all of the people who touched the experience. (I’m sorry if this is confusing, but this is just how my mind works.)
Plus there’s another part to Gogol Bordello that isn’t even about the music or the people but is highly relevant in the world right now. By this I mean their activism and support for Ukraine. (I will definitely touch on that , but will have to expand on that subject in yet another post because there is just SO much to tell). So in saying all this, English makes my little voice louder, and that can amplify their message too. So there. Another three parter. Plus a Fourth. Which will really be the Fifth. (Hey, did I just declare a triology in five parts. Speaking of kindred spirits, I mean!)
Anyway. Enjoy Part three where I meet more of the Purple People!
Read: Part Zero, Part One (-ish) and Part Two!
It was done. Gogol Bordello has left the stage. I am left behind very fulfilled, wandering around smiling a bit, before checking out my coat and finding the merch stand. I had already decided on the t-shirt I was going to get while waiting before the show. (Sadly I have yet to wear ANY of my merch since June was so FUCKING HOT. But it’s fine, new threads for Autumn, when my body can handle sleeves again!)
I quickly tell my preference to the lovely lady behind the stand and note Eugene walking back there. Sadly he is on his way backstage again, probably completely knackered after such an energetic show. No matter, I had been lucky enough as it was in the last week and months, I wasn’t planning on making band friends that night. I also add one of their lovely (and super practical) totes to my purchase, after seeing the proceeds go to support Ukraine.
I turn around and who do I bump into but Sergey Ryabtsev aka mister electric violin himself! I manage to get him to sign my bag in pink sharpie, (Yes, I might never use this beautiful, practical bag again for irrational fear of it washing off. I will still very much enjoy and cherish it.) and have a quick picture taken. After ‘smoothly’ blurting out how much I loved the show and his playing in particular, I leave him to enjoy his after-show breather.
On my way out the door, I suddenly decide to turn back. During the show, the opener Puzzled Panther came on stage for one of the songs, and it just registered in my brain that they were the lovely ladies behind the merch. I venture over there and swiftly bond with Victoria Espinoza and Kay Buontempo who hail from NYC and have just been picked up by Gogol Bordello’s label.
I tell them how sorry I am to have missed two seemingly bad ass women on stage and promise to listen to their music. As is usual with Purple People, they aren’t mad I missed their show, but really enthusiastic to tell me all about it. At this point, there haven’t yet been any releases, (that I am aware of, correct me if I am wrong in the comments!) but I am anxiously waiting to tell you about it when they do release something!
What I did find was this lovely excerpt from a live show they did with two of their songs. I’ve also seen bits and pieces on the Puzzled Panther Instagram as well, so give them a follow and wait with me to add them to all the playlists!
Dumb European as I am, I comment to Kay: ‘Oh, you’re from NYC, like all cool merch people I meet. Do you know Joey Steel and Van Tastik?’ Of course she doesn’t, because one isn’t even from NYC (Van Tastik, he lived in the NY area but has since moved all over and now lives in the Netherlands) and NYC itself has a population nearly the size of Belgium, but I just get so excited.
Like I didn’t already think there had been too many weird coincidences that week, Kay drops the bomb on me when subsequently asking me if I normally speak French because I have a French accent in my English. The same question one of those broad NY area merch people, Fallen Reverend Van Tastik, had asked me not two days earlier. Feeling like this is synchronicity nudging me along, I end up buying a Puzzled Panther shirt as well. I thank these amazing Purple People, tell them I will write about their music and almost hop skip out of de Roma, drunk on music and life yet again. It is right then and there that the idea to Polexia Miller is born. I will write my own Almost Famous story. Let’s see how this ends! But first, read on about how it starts!
At this point, I am floating on clouds through the streets of Antwerp, back to the car that had eventually been parked about a half an hour walk out. It is a nice night and as soon as we leave the Turnhoutsebaan, it gets pretty quiet and we don’t see any passersby. A few silent streets into our journey I hear some English from a street corner and turn my head. I turn back. I do a double take. This CANNOT be. It is the three Brits I lost between the encores. This is Polexia’s time to shine!
Let’s finish what we barely started here. I begin an on the road type interview and try to take as many notes as I can. (I fail miserably to write anything down coherently, but I still got the gist of it all. Note to self, use recorder.) I ask them if it’s their first time in Belgium, which as it turns out, it is. Not only that, but they hadn’t really thought about a visit and had just followed Gogol Bordello because they rocked their socks off. They saw them a week earlier at Slam Dunk Festival in Leeds (For all that is holy, look at that line-up. I need to incorporate festival vacations!)
They came back from the festival, went on a leisurely trip to their friends in Normandy to eventually end up in Belgium for the show. It had been a good but also very rough week on them since they told me they had been drinking since the previous Wednesday. (The night this takes place is Friday in case anyone wants to do the math.) Though the conversation and information is a scattered chaos at best, I must say they hold their drink well. (I would have toppled over somewhere on the first Thursday probably.) And I thrive on chaos, so this is my ‘normal’ and I am enjoying every minute of our half hour walk. Because yes, they need to be in almost the same place as we do, because the universe has made it so.
As a beer loving Belgian, I can’t help but ask how they’re liking our beers since their version of Stella is watered down. The poetic words ‘I wouldn’t poke Stella with the dick of an enemy’ were followed by the second ode to Pimm’s I had heard in ever. (Apparently it is like the nectar of the gods. So much so that when The Rabids played the coronation party at the British store Stonemanor, they ran out and there was a public outcry. Which was then followed by the first ode to Pimm’s by an amazing British woman I still need to tell you about. Anyway.)
A lot of other amusing profanities are thrown around that I won’t repeat here, because some things are better off the record. Speaking of record. That part I forgot, to take an actual picture of the guys. At some point I had tried to shoot a video of their rendition of ‘Start wearing orange’. (My incapacity to do three things as well made me fail this miserably.) Well, Ian and Toby’s rendition. Tim mentioned that they had been changing the word Purple for whatever they could find the whole trip and it had been bugging him to bits.
Then, out of nowhere they give up on the Gogol and go straight for MMMbop. (Read here why that song/band is so important to me.) In my confusion (also, I was trying to cross a street and not get run over) I missed filming it. Lucky for me they pretend-believed me when I said my camera was off. If only for 15 glorious seconds.
Tim, Ian, Toby (and also deceased asshole cat Ralph), it was a pleasure meeting you and I hope to see you on my musical travels again! Have fun going viral, maybe!
Looks like we made it to the end! There will still be a part four, about the Gogol Activism, but I have another live music story to tell that needs to come first. I am not yet sure how many parts it will contain, but it is also FILLED TO THE BRIM with the Purpleest of Purple People.
GOGOL BORDELLO – Saturday June 3rd 2023, De Roma Antwerpen
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