New York Gypsy Festival Closing Party at LQ (Lobby of the Roger Smith Hotel) October 8, 2006 Written by Eve Hyman Photographed by Melinda Maclean Opposite photo Sasha Kolpakov Trio from Moscow

Acquaragia Drom

On Sunday October 8th, The New York City Gypsy Festival held its closing party at LQ in the lobby of the Roger Smith Hotel. Throughout the week, the 2nd Annual Gypsy Festival hosted bands from across Southern Europe, Eastern Europe, and the US. Sunday night was the highlight of the week, with an impressive turnout of young, hip, beautiful people in gypsy-esque fashion. The feeling was global village; a James Bond scene in a Transylvanian nightclub with fabulous people, music, and dance.

DJ Hutz of Gogol Bordello spun Balkan folk mash-ups and popular punk classics blended with Brazilian songs, North African songs, and other exotic audio. The first band was Acquaragia Drom from Italy. They started the night with the right gypsy energy and got people dancing right away.

Sasha Kolpakov Trio from Moscow

Acquaragia Drom was followed by the Sasha Kolpakov Trio from Moscow. Apparently, Sasha is a big deal in the Russia. DJ Hutz introduced his music as “Servo-Romana” (a Russian-Ukrainian Servo tribe of Roma). It seemed there wasn’t a single member of the audience who could understand that very specific language. A woman who looked like a model stood next to me. She had tears streaming down her face throughout Sasha’s first song. I asked her if he was singing in Ukrainian. She said she didn’t know what language it was. Like her, I couldn’t understand a syllable, but I totally got the gist from Sasha’s emotive facial expressions. His mustached, bespectacled face lit up with certain phrases and managed to convey a great deal of feeling to the audience, despite the language barrier. He played guitar and sang with his nephew – the two were dressed in traditional embroidered vests. His daughter sang with him as well and belly-danced.

Following the Kolpakov Trio’s set, I ran into DJ Joro-boro. He was dancing, surrounded by moshing youth who were powered by DJ Hutz’s choices of The Clash and Madness. Hutz was getting the crowd ready for Seattle-based Kultur Shock's “gypsy punk.”

The Crowd

LQ is a beautiful venue with a vaulted ceiling that was the perfect backdrop for the artistic, eccentric projections repeated throughout the show. There was a scene with people on a beach followed by another of a lone figure walking down a country road in real time. There was a black and white scene of a rural gypsy party followed by a view of hundreds of flickering candles. It was now close to 1AM on a Sunday in midtown and I had planned to leave by then. But the crowd’s excitement was contagious, so Melinda and I decided to stay for the last band. We were in the middle of Downtown, Earth and leaving didn’t seem like an option.

Kultur Shock

Kultur Shock hit the stage in a fury of energy – they were a big group. The lead singer looked like a contestant from the cage in Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome. He had intimidating dread locks rooted in the middle of a balding skull. Part pirate, part gypsy punk, Kultur Shock brought the noise – in a good way. There was bass, drums, two guitars, a Japanese belly dancer, and a violinist. Even the belly dancer was hard core – her lean, muscular body writhed with the ripping bass lines and smashing cymbals. The instrumentalists backed up the lead singer with surprisingly good vocal harmonies, and the violinist tore through string accompaniment that kept it real - real gypsy. He appeared to be about twenty-years-old but since he was sporting a huge, bushy beard it took a moment to realize the twenty-year-age difference amongst the band members. I’m not a big hard-core fan, but I loved Kultur Shock. There power was intense – they put on a great live show.

The organizers of the NYC Gypsy Festival have found a year-round home for Romani events. To find out about upcoming shows visit: www.maiameyhane.com. Or check out Maia Meyhane Restaurant at 98 Ave B in Alphabet City.