Why Is Goran Bregovic So Bloody Popular?

One, why start with 30 minutes of soundtrack music that's very pretty but doesn't get the audience excited? Two, why pay a chorus of five male singers to travel with you when they only perform for ten minutes a show? Three, if you already have to pay an orchestra of nineteen other musicians to tour with you, would it have really been that expensive to bring along a drummer so that you didn't have to use Garage Band synth beats? Four, if you need to use Garage Band beats live, couldn't you have a tech guy do it, rather than the putative orchestra leader and the person everyone's come to see? (We assume that's what he was doing on his computer, though he could have been Facebooking.)

Now, strictly speaking, the performance of the music itself wasn't bad; Bregović's backing band is phenomenal. And in his defense, he did hurt his back a couple months ago, as the Seattle Times reported. Still, we've seen videos over the last few years of him, and the stage show is pretty much always the same. Dressed in white linen, Bregović comes out on stage and sits front and center, plays a little guitar, sings a bit, and otherwise lets his fairly talented gypsy brass band do the musical heavy lifting.

And about fifty minutes in, he hit on some of the catchier pop songs that guarantee him legions of Eastern European-born fans, who stood up out of their seats at the Moore and danced about, arms raised. Still, it was one of the most oddly boring concerts we've ever been to. These days, Bregović has become known for adapting Balkan standards for his own uses, but the music lacks the urgency and freewheeling energy of actual Balkan gypsy music, to say nothing of the virtuosic performances.

Bregović is known as a guitarist, but he didn't really play all that much last night. Real Balkan gypsy guitar is an amazing thing to see, though, and those interested would do well to check out Amir "Lazy" Beso, who, as it happens, will be playing the back room at Piecora's tonight. See him to get a sense of the energy that was so lacking in Bregović's show--he can shred the acoustic like Dimebag Darrell used to with Pantera. It's an amazing thing to see, and a far better value than $60 for Bregović.