Acoustic Live

A mainstay of Seattle’s indie scene in the early 2000s, Balkan punk rockers Kultur Shock are back with a surprising new album, Acoustic Live. Taken from a live show in their hometown, the album showcases an unplugged sound and a stellar recording quality for what is usually a difficult performance venue (Town Hall Seattle). Comparisons to the other big ‘gypsy punk’ (as Kultur Shock describe themselves) band, Gogol Bordello, are inevitable, but, at least on this album, Kultur Shock play circles around them instrumentally. Drawing from Seattle’s vibrant Balkan immigrant population, Kultur Shock has always taken the instrumental roots of their Balkan music seriously, bringing in here young Seattle Balkan fiddler/saxophonist Eleni Govetas. Long-time Seattle composer Amy Denio fills out the saxophone with Govetas; Denio has been with the band since 1999. Much of the appeal of Kultur Shock lies in the bravado and wild singing of lead singer and band founder Gino Yevdjevich. A young pop star in the former Yugoslavia, Yevdjevich was stranded in war-torn Sarajevo in the 90s, getting out on an artist visa thanks in part to Joan Baez, whom he’d met in the city. He formed Kultur Shock in the late 90s and it was a multinational political band by Seattle’s charged 2000s, still roiling after the city’s World Trade Organisation protests of the late 90s. Playing rock clubs, Kultur Shock gravitated towards a harder sound, channelling punk and metal in equal measure. With this new album, they’ve managed to translate the ferocity of their early music to an acoustic, seated venue, no small feat.