Auktyon

Fri., March 21, 7:30 p.m., $30-$40, with Alina Simone, World Café Live, 3025 Walnut St., 215-222-1400, worldcafelive.com.

by Shaun Brady

	print	email	reply	rss feed

Published: Mar 18, 2008

rock

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

There's something about former Soviet Socialist Republics that lend themselves to a certain gray-faced surrealist humor, a wit that hits with the bluntness and sudden thud of a cinder block dropped from a great height. That's all present in the style of Russian eight-piece Auktyon, which has been plying their unique blend of avant-rock and performance art (though it's a challenge to differentiate the two) for something like 30 years now. If punk rock could be considered folk music for dystopic urban tribes, then Auktyon's music herds the punks into a carny caravan and plunks them down into some war-torn Eastern European square for the amusement of hard-scrabble end-timers. Gritty campfire sing-alongs yield to prog-punk rave-ups or devolve into free-jazz freakouts, with rhythms creeping in from around the globe, none of them up to any good. For their latest, Girls Sing (Geometriya), the band enlisted Stateside admirers Marc Ribot and John Medeski, both of whom speak the same genre-scorning language as their Russian compatriots.

Fri., March 21, 7:30 p.m., $30-$40, with Alina Simone, World Café Live, 3025 Walnut St., 215-222-1400, worldcafelive.com.

All reader comments are subject to our Terms of Use. By clicking Post Comment, you acknowledge that you have reviewed and agree to these Terms.

Name	please enter your name
Email (will not be published)	please enter a valid email
Comment	please enter a comment
Enter the security code on the right in the textbox below.
Security Code	please enter the code
	Join the City Paper Mailing List

Run, Killbot, Run
Shootout Showdown
Four More Years?
Soundadvice
Thao Nguyen
eMC