It’s really hard to categorize Oi Va Voi’s music. Judging from the album I would have described them as Klezmer Trip Hop, but having seen them live really forces me to look for another description. Less emphasis on lazy, babbling beats… instead, real contemporary dance power combined with traditional Klezmer sounds and influenced by an amazing spectrum of other musical genres!
Opening with an astounding instrumental tune, Oi Va Voi immediately set the pace for the rest of the concert. Violinist Sophie Solomon, who, with her trendy punk look, by no means answers the image most people have in mind of a violinist, stole the show right from the start by playing her violin at the most scorching pace, displaying a wonderful passion. The band’s second song of the night was their hit “Refugee”, sung (and danced to) by the excellent Scottish singer KT Tunstall. On the CD “Laughter Through Tears”, that song certainly is a bull’s eye, but I think the audience wasn’t expecting it that early in the set yet. At that point, they still needed a little bit of warming up, but I can already reveal that somewhat later, the audience would mainly need a lot of cooling down!
I don’t remember the exact order of the playlist, I was actually so busy dancing from the very start that I completely forgot to take notes now and again. I found it impossible to stand still: not only because of the excellent, inviting sound, but also because of Oi Va Voi’s enthusiasm, the fun they have performing and the way KT was happily dancing along every second she was on stage. However, KT wasn’t the only one enrapturing the audience. Trumpet player / vocalist Lemez Lovas, for example, did the same with the rousing song “Gypsy”. Actually, Lemez also enchanted me with “Hora”, an entrancing song about identity, and with his version of “A Csitári Hegyek Alatt”, a tale about lovers, broken arms and rosemary bushes, which he helpfully translated into English for us.
One of the elements that I find particularly beautiful in Oi Va Voi’s music is Steve Levi’s clarinet. It’s an instrument that I’d almost completely forgotten about, because it rarely is given such a prominent role in the types of music that I generally listen to, but it really adds a lot of emotion to the music. Steve Levi also did the vocals on a few songs, such as “Od Yeshoma” and “Yesterday’s mistakes”, which they played last.
That song is an outstanding example of the perfect marriage between Klezmer and dance, combining beautiful English lyrics sung by KT and compelling Yiddish vocals by Steve Levi. It will be their next single, and I hope it will make it to the Belgian charts, for I haven’t been able to get the words out of my head for days now! “I refuse to replay the mistakes that we made yesterday. They were yesterday’s mistakes…”. An excellent motto, don’t you think?
During that song, the audience really went wild and Oi Va Voi was given a standing ovation… Well, not that we were sitting down at first, (I wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of the reprobate who decides to schedule Oi Va Voi in a room full of comfy chairs!) but you understand me, right? A thunderous applause brought them back on stage and they played “Refugee” a second time. The audience seemed to explode and convincingly joined in with the song. What a magnetic atmosphere there was! Everybody wanted the concert to go on forever and when the musicians left the stage again, the audience just kept on singing “Refugee”, to call them back for a second time, a request the band willingly granted. They seemed genuinely pleased with this warm reception, but they certainly more than deserved it! Try as I might to describe to you the live capacities of Oi Va Voi, it’s something you should experience for yourself, but be careful, they are dynamite!
Oi Va Voi: the sequel
On our way to our friend’s car, the five of us were just chatting about what an amazing concert we had witnessed, when we spotted the car with two jackets lying in the gutter next to it. “Strange, we left our jackets in the boot of the car, didn’t we?” our friends said. Then, it began to dawn on us: window smashed, backpack stolen out of the boot… Its contents? Identity card, driving licence, credit cards, house keys, 200 EUR worth of food and gift vouchers, …
At least two other cars had suffered a similar fate and at least one of the other cars belonged to a couple who also returned from Oi Va Voi’s concert. By the way, those cars all were parked at a distance of 100 m from a police office, which was obviously closed.
Then the trouble started. We stopped a police officer, but he referred us to the office of Schaarbeek, because he was “busy”. Since we didn’t know our way around Schaarbeek and since our driver used to live in Evere, he called the police office in Evere for advice. There, they told him that he should go to the office near Madou. When we finally arrived at Madou and explained our case, the police officer told us: “Sorry, you’re not in the right zone, you should go to the Grand Place”. Maddening, isn’t it? Luckily, one of my friends is a great negotiator and he convinced the officer to do us a favour and draw up a report of the offence. Three of us stayed in a waiting room for a whole hour, while the two others were explaining everything. And you know what? When push came to shove, we turned out to be in the “right” zone!
Like true fakirs, sitting on bits and pieces of glass on the back seat of the car, we started our trip back to Ghent at 2:00 A.M. in the morning.
Well, the thieves damaged the car and were able to steal a backpack, but, at least, they couldn’t deprive us of the great concert we’d attended!
Aisling
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