GYPSY FEVER IS BACK!
The Benka Boradovsky Bordello Band and DJ Balkanetic are on the road again in January on their second national Gypsy Fever tour bringing their highly infectious, uplifting, intoxicating blend of East European/Gypsy/Klezmer music to venues all around the country.
The Benka Boradovsky Bordello Band released their debut ep, Danse Macabre in early 2008 and since then they have been in hot demand playing at the Prana, Jambalaya, Parihaka and Splore festivals last summer as well as undertaking a highly successful 20 date ‘Gypsy Fever’ national tour in January/early February. In March they had the honour of supporting popular international act Beirut at the Kings Arms in Auckland.
The Benka band’s first single ‘Dance of Death’ spent four weeks in the Kiwi FM top ten and the riotous, energetic video for that song got plenty of airplay on music tv and has remained in the top ten videos on NZ music website Amplifier for six months. Catch the band while you can as plans are afoot to relocate to their musical motherland in May next year for a European tour.
The Benka Boradovsky Bordello Band
Hailing from the slums and ghettos of Auckland (the Prague of the South), The Benka Boradovsky Bordello band is a highly theatrical musical group specialising in music of Eastern European, Gypsy and Jewish flavour, along with some Western European influences. With music ranging from old to new, originals to standards, vocal to instrumental; they are remarkable in their ability to get everyone up and dancing, regardless of age, musical taste, or level of drunkenness. Benkas globetrotting voice sings in a wide variety of languages, with lyrics in Russian, Greek, Serbian, Romani, Arabic, Hebrew, Spanish, English and more. If references are necessary, they sound like Tom Waits, Shane McGowan and Franz Kafka drunk too much vodka and thought they were in 1950s Yugoslavia.
Reviews
Frenetic and bawdy, the eclectic BBBB have a gypsy/klezmer/Eastern European-thing going on that is very addictive and slightly unhinged. With raw, heavily accented vocals and feverish instrumentals, the band play traditional, new and original songs in a range of languages, from Russian to Arabic, English to Hebrew. It’s funny, energetic and simply irresistible.
Kia Ora Magazine
The Benka Bordadovsky Bordello Band capture a Jewish, Gypsy feel with breathtaking effectiveness.
Canta
It makes you want to kick up your heels and dance like a Cossack.
Real Groove
