The Balkan Beat Box and Golem show at Castaways in Ithaca, NY was undoubtedly the most exciting live show I've seen in months, if not years. Golem opened up the show with their punk-tinged klezmer music, and Balkan Beat Box took over with their high-energy "New Mediterraneo", blowing everyone away.
Golem Starts the Show Off Right
Golem, who were touring in support of their new album Fresh Off Boat, were not entirely what I expected, but it was a pleasant surprise! Knowing that they were wildly popular among punk-rock fans led me to assume that they were more punk than klezmer but, in fact, the opposite was true; the band was basically straight-up Eastern European Klezmer with a drummer and a touch of sexiness. Sassy multilingual vocals combined with driving rhythm... I like it!When I mentioned to one of my punk rocker friends that it surprised me that Golem would be so popular among the punk rock crowd (considering they have both a fiddle and an accordion in the band), he said that it's because punk fans like pretty much anything that you can mosh to. It all came clear. Golem's male vocalist, Aaron Diskin, also definitely won the prize for strangest hairstyle of the evening. His mullet-hawk alone is worth going out to see.
Where Did Balkan Beat Box Go?
After Golem finished up their set, I made the rounds to chat up my friends. At one point, the majority of Balkan Beat Box had been onstage setting up their gear, and minutes later, they had all disappeared. Now, I may be a world music geek, but I've been to enough clubs to know that when the band disappears, there's a "big entrance" coming.Well, as usual, I wasn't wrong. The band filed in like a high school marching band drumline. Literally. They all had drums. Well, that's not true, some of them had shakers and tambourines and other little things. They marched straight up to the merchandise table, where Golem had set up their stuff, and serenaded them for a few minutes before heading up to the stage. At this point, I wasn't entirely sure what I was in for.
