Hard times, punk rock

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This article was published 21/07/2023 (1152 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Eugene Hütz knows the healing power of punk rock.

The 50-year-old Ukrainian-born vocalist of Gogol Bordello used the music he loved as a teenager to help him cope with being uprooted when his parents brought him and the rest of their family to the United States from their home near Kyiv in 1992.

“You might understand, conceptually as a kid, that the family made the right decision to move, but you still get ripped out. Everything you know about the world, your friends, girlfriend (is gone) and you’re starting from scratch,” says Hütz, who will lead Gogol Bordello onstage at the Burton Cummings Theatre tonight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TiNbhf91GQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzKGWANisdg

“Luckily for me, having punk rock as my fundamental culture helped me a lot to reconnect to a new line of people in the States.”

Little did he know that three decades later, the frenetic style of punk Gogol Bordello creates would be used as a salve for the emotional scars suffered by Ukrainian emigrés who have fled Russia’s invasion of their homeland.

Among them are about 20,000 Ukrainians who have moved to Manitoba since the invasion began in February 2022.

“It’s entertainment, but it’s way more than that, especially the music we do,” Hütz says. “It has a tangible purpose. Bringing people together in one mosh pit is what Gogol Bordello is all about.

“There was always a fraction of the crowd to see Gogol Bordello who were Ukrainian. Now there’s a greater fraction and it’s rewarding and meaningful to see.”

Hütz has studied the history of Ukrainian diaspora, especially the waves of settlers who moved to the Canadian Prairies, whether they broke ground on new homesteads early in the 20th century or arrived after the Second World War.

He’s also realized Ukraine’s longtime fight for independence continues to pull those from other countries to help out in any way they can, whether that’s by supporting Ukrainian charities and organizations or taking matters into their own hands.

“I know some people who were born and raised in Canada of Ukrainian descent who went to fight in Ukraine,” he says. “People who feel the call, it’s part of our genetic hard drive. I think it’s a very dignified and healthy response to the situation. Care for your own kin.”

Hütz and Gogol Bordello have found their own ways to give back to the Ukrainian war effort besides their musical medication. United Strike Back, a single released in May, teams the group with punk stars such as Jello Biafra of Dead Kennedys, Tré Cool of Green Day, Joe Lally of Fugazi and Roger Miret of Agnostic Front, among others, with proceeds going to Kind Deeds, a U.S.-based non-profit that provides free, state-of-the-art prostheses to those severely injured in Russia’s attacks.

“Seeing these names respond to a crisis like that just speaks about vitality and real awesomeness in punk and hardcore as an esthetic,” Hütz says.

The song is only the band’s way of bringing awareness to Kind Deeds and the work they do, he says, rather than receiving any emotional catharsis from pointing a musical middle finger to Vladimir Putin’s Russian government.

“Maybe a little fraction — we did one good thing — but there will be no relief until victory, and including the rebuilding of the country. There will be no relief until then,” Hütz says.

Gogol Bordello arrived on the New York music scene in 1999 and became known for their high-energy performances. The group includes American newcomers from Ecuador and Brazil, as well as Russian violinist Sergey Ryabtsev and Hütz.

The band’s history, told through years of concert and interview footage compiled over the years, is the backbone of a new documentary, Scream of My Blood: A Gogol Bordello Story, which debuted last month at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

A trailer for the film is on YouTube (wfp.to/gogolbordello) but no worldwide release date has been set.

“The producers did a pretty amazing job cutting to the chase, which is pretty tricky. My life is used as a thread to tell a larger story,” says Hütz, who had a memorable role in the 2005 film Everything Is Illuminated, alongside Elijah Wood. “I didn’t have a lot of say in it and you have to hand it over to the pros and let them do their work.”

Hütz says that whether it’s tonight at the Burt or last August, when Gogol Bordello jammed with border guards at the Ukrainian-Hungarian border, the band has been pulling out the stops as it tours the world.

“The band is red-hot at the moment because the times we’re living are just extremely f—ed up,” he says. “If it’s not some political turmoil, some electoral insanity, then it’s a pandemic and if it’s not a pandemic then it’s an invasion.

“We’re going to get through this, but hard times bring good people together.”

alan.small@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter: @AlanDSmall