Under The Influence

I was very lucky on Saturday when I chose to walk into that unassuming little record store (Sax) in Leuven. The guy behind the counter was understandably sceptical about my taste in music when he noticed the Rock Werchter armband I was wearing. I asked for something local and this is what I got - what a treat.

I'm glad I sacked off the festival to head back to Leuven to see them play that night. The performance was fantastic. Great energy, great fun, great act - gypsy ska at its best. Jos from the record store proved to be wonderful company with fine taste in music.

A wonderful experience - the memory of which I'll treasure all my life.

Stomping punked up Klezmer, that's what it is. And it's good too, very good.

There's a massive western influence going on here - in fact I think these guys are from the states. That's what gives it it's original sound. I do love my gypsy beats, but it's great having them turned up a notch (not that it's generally required - just go to a Fanfare Ciocarlia gig to see what I mean).

Funny lyrics too - check out Not A Crime. I keep coming back to this one and I don't see that changing in the future.

Radio 3 naming you the years best world-music act (2006) is going to do wonders for your reputation. That probably goes a long way to explaining why the Barbican Centre was completely packed out for their performance last night. The enthusiasm shown by the crowd, however was completely driven by the band.

It was a hell of a performance and the crowd didn't hold back in displaying their appreciation. Most of the night the stage was dominated by 40 year old men with big brass horns - though flamenco dancers did slink past from time to time to provide the eye-candy.

The album is cool but it just doesn't match up to the live experience. Truthfully, there's no way it ever could - there are just a few times in my life where I've witnessed performances that even come close to matching this in energy. There's something incredible about hearing brass live. I love the way it sounds like it's tearing through the air - invokes the same satisfaction one derives from shredding paper. From what I saw last night everyone felt the same way about the gig I did.