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[skygiants]

I have seen a lot of really good concerts in the past month or so - Florence and the Machine, The Decemberists -- but the best one was the one I went to on Monday, as organized by the local Jewish Workmen's Circle, featuring radical Yiddish klezmerpunk group Daniel Kahn and the Painted Bird.

Highlights:

- opening act, accordionist Hannah Temple, leading the whole room in 'Mir Veln Zey Iberlebn' ("We Will Outlive Them")
- Hannah Temple also did a really enjoyable radical queer reconfiguration of a religious-traditional song called "Vikhtik" ("what is important, what is not")
- one of my favorite songs of the night, David Eidelstadt's "Arbeter Froyen"

"Arbeter Froyen" (Watch on YouTube)

followed by a story about how Daniel Kahn & crew accidentally learned that David Eidelstadt's grave was right near a place they were visiting, so they all trooped out on a field trip to go find it

CEMETARY GUIDE: bet you can read that Hebrew writing on there, huh?
DANIEL KAHN: it's Yiddish yep!
CEMETARY GUIDE: we had some rabbis come out here ... they read it and said he had a pretty peculiar outlook on life
DANIEL KAHN: he probably thought the same thing about the rabbis....

And then Daniel Kahn followed up by singing the poem that's written on David Eidelstadt's grave, Mayn Tsavoe/My Testament, which is the angriest anarchist version of Danny Boy.

- the spontaneous hora that started up from the audience during the Zeyde Cohen Medley ("for my daddy is a Cohen, he don't fuck around") and kept going all the way through Yosl Ber ("now let's have a song about toxic masculinity..."), turned into a sort of intense stomp while everyone sang Dumai, and got back into full swing during March of the Jobless Corps (my first Daniel Kahn song and still my favorite, though after last night "Dumai" is making a strong bid for favor.)

"Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird - Dumai" (Watch on YouTube)

I love ... radical Jewish culture? I feel it deeply and unironically in my bones in a way that I don't always its convergent parts. Did not expect that taking Yiddish classes would lead me straight to punk at this advanced age, but that's where we are.

(Other songs I remember from the setlist, for sovay: Freedom is a Verb, The Butcher's Sher, Two Brothers, Nayn-un-Nayntsik, Embrace the Fascists, and Shtil Di Nakht Is Oysgeshternt.)

Comments

[sovay]

(Other songs I remember from the setlist, for sovay: Freedom is a Verb, The Butcher's Sher, Two Brothers, Nayn-un-Nayntsik, Embrace the Fascists, and Shtil Di Nakht Is Oysgeshternt.)

YEAH HIRSHKE.

. . . I am deeply invested in persuading ABV to sing "Shtil, di nakht," even if it's not in their regular repertoire. I don't see how VITKE KEMPNER TAKES DOWN NAZIS is something we wouldn't all want to sing about.

I am glad it was so good. I could not have been there at all.

[skygiants]

I am VERY IN FAVOR of getting to sing "Shtil, di nakht!"

Fun fact: I just found out that apparently Daniel Kahn took a turn as Perchik in Yiddish Fiddler this summer? Which, I mean, of course he did, I can't believe I didn't just intuit this based on logical causality.

[sovay]

I am VERY IN FAVOR of getting to sing "Shtil, di nakht!"

Excellent!

Fun fact: I just found out that apparently Daniel Kahn took a turn as Perchik in Yiddish Fiddler this summer?

EVERYTHING ABOUT THE SOCIALIST TORAH LESSON IS ILLUMINATED.

[vass]

That sounds so good. I've heard of Daniel Kahn and the Painted Bird before, but clearly I should investigate them more thoroughly.

[skygiants]

I've been a little obsessed with them ever since we learned "March of the Jobless Corps" in class last year and I have no regrets.

[oracne]

That sounds like it was a TERRIFIC concert.

Also, I love accordion so much.

[skygiants]

I would not have previously said I was particularly an accordion fan, but I may be one now!

[katarik]

Someone on the DW linked Kahn's Yiddish-language version of Cohen's "Hallelujah" and I fell down the youtube rabbit hole immediately; I know there's so much stuff I'm missing, but man, I really enjoy what I've heard (like "Dumai"). Thanks for posting about this so I can pick up more music!

[skygiants]

Yeah, the first I heard was the Yiddish-language "Hallelujah" too, which is AMAZING, but I didn't fall down the YouTube hole until I saw the "March of the Jobless Corps" video and then I was a hundred percent hooked.

[raven]

This sounds amazing! Thank you for writing about it!

[skygiants]

It was pretty incredible -- I'm glad you enjoyed the write-up!

[dhampyresa]

Klezmerpunk sounds amazing.

CEMETARY GUIDE: we had some rabbis come out here ... they read it and said he had a pretty peculiar outlook on life
DANIEL KAHN: he probably thought the same thing about the rabbis....
HAHAHA

[skygiants]

I LAUGHED A LOT.

[ageorwizardry]

By good fortune, I came across your post this morning, thought Daniel Kahn and the Painted Bird sounded hella cool, idly checked the website to see if there were any future tour dates in the Bay Area... and found that there was one TONIGHT. So. I'm at the break in the middle and wanted to thank you for being the impetus that got me here. :-)

(Our audience isn't nearly as active as yours, and it seems like that would have been so great to experience -- people aren't even singing along much when invited, much less spontaneously breaking into dance! But I'm enjoying the hell out of the music, and I'll definitely be listening to more.)

[skygiants]

Oh, that's awesome, I'm so glad you got to go see them!!! (Though sorry your audience isn't as active -- ours was a solid 75% members of the Boston Workmen's Circle, which is a VERY ENTHUSIASTIC Yiddish community.)

[bloodygranuaile]

A comrade of mine also went to this show and posted a few clips on Instagram -- it seems really cool!

[skygiants]

Oh, if you have links to the clips (and they're publicly available) I'd love to see them -- I was thinking about taking out my phone and trying to record some!

[bloodygranuaile]

https://www.instagram.com/p/BqGt2hIB-KtL1c6HlG0wbT9-_VhR_Vni6bK_iY0/ <- hopefully that link will work; instagram is weird on desktop sometimes