XPoNential Fest: Gogol Bordello tears up the TLA for the amped-up night owls

Shortly after the first night of XPoNential Music Festival wrapped up at Wiggins Park, a horde of people lined up South Street for the sold-out after party with rabble-rousing eclectic world rock of Gogol Bordello. Though the band has embraced its self-styled “gypsy punk” aesthetic since the 90s, their sound has considerably broadened over the years, as Anna Novikova pointed out in her review of the band’s new LP Pure Vida Conspiracy.

The set last night mixed in elements of dub / reggae, South American music, and even pop moments with the band’s punked-up Eastern European. Singer Eugene Hütz was a commanding presence at the head of the slam-dancing, stampeding, pogo-ing crowd, leading them in chants of “break the curse of aging” and emptying most of a bottle of wine on the front row in spirling, splashes of bright red. Check out photos of the show in the gallery below.