Golem

Written by Jeff Gangemi
Photographed by Evan Sung

According to their website, New York-based Klezmer/Rock band, Golem, (named after the legendary Jewish Frankenstein of Prague), transforms the old Jewish genre, Klezmer, into a “modern, edgy, sexy, and brash” musical experience. Reporting to the Knitting Factory for duty, I doubted this claim. To my untrained ears, the clips that I had secretly downloaded at my desk at work sounded more like renditions from a dissonant marching band.

Boy was I mistaken! After twiddling my thumbs through the opening band, Golem’s first song came rumbling out of the far corner of the room, like a pied-piper parade of snake charmers serenading their lovers. It was called "Spanish Balkans," and it seemed to carry a discernible echo from some faraway place.

Sharing the lead with the talented Annette Ezekiel was front man Aaron Diskin, looking like an amalgamated lounge singer with shades of Elvis Costello and Colin Farrell, convulsing to the music. I must say, this fellow sang from his heart. But in what language did it beat from within? From information gathered before the show, I knew it must be Yiddish, that inaccessible language from Eastern Europe that now rang so clear. Not that I knew what they were talking about. But to reel me in yet further, I heard a distinctly American "motherfucker" peep through the fog. This immediately stretched my smile to its limits, and all at once, I was a believer - not just in the music, but in this whole movement dedicated to taking the old and limp and infusing it with some healthy stiffness.

Joining Annette Ezekiel - bandleader, accordionist and singer - and madcap vocalist Aaron Diskin, were Timothy Quigley banging ever so eloquently on the drums, Curtis Hasselbring on trombone, Alicia Jo Rabins fiddling away on her violin, and Taylor Bergren-Chrisman adding the intangibles on the stand-up bass.

The second song of the night was introduced to the excited crowd as a ditty about sailors, eggplant, prostitutes, and smugglers, part of our mystical musical tour of Eastern Europe - next stop Odessa. Upbeat and foot-stomping, Diskin banged his tambourine like there was no tomorrow. His body language was such that he didn't even need an instrument - a lounge singer from the back alleys of some Eastern European opium smoker's paradise. It made me want to go barnstorming and I didn't even know why.

Throughout the show, I thought to myself how much more accessible the music had become since my first short interaction with it, how quickly it began to penetrate me. I had been taken on a journey through space and time, constantly landing me right back here to the modern day - to New York - where these young Jewish people have taken their history and turned it on its head to make it beautiful in a whole new way. I felt that if I could hear it up close and quietly kiss it on the neck, that I might know its secret, feel its pulse, and know its power more completely. I could imagine its croakings, strainings, its squeals and laughs of delight like the pleasantries exchanged by yentas on a wedding night in the shtetl. The knowing smiles and genuine looks of joy and excitement offered by the band were infectious, and I enjoyed the rest of the show just as much as these first songs. Now I wish I had bought the album, so I might take this journey again.

I highly recommend this band. And if you go see them for yourself, don't forget that "Golem"s" Jewish music is for the cool kids, not your grandma! Also, I'm happy to report that they do Bar mitzvahs! Check them out on www.golemrocks.com.