East meets South

I'm starting to feel a little guilty about the amount of time I'm spending at House of Targ. There are plenty of other venues around town hosting shows, but Targ keeps dragging me over. Not that I offered much resistence to a double bill featuring Bad Uncle (last seen rocking the old HoT on Main) and Ukrainia - last seen at Bluesfest an alarming five years ago. First off Bad Uncle - they've got that Eastern European sound that seems to be automatically conjured up whenever accordions are involved (see also: Gogol Bordello, Beirut) even if, like frontman Santosh, you affix a wee Casio to it.



Singalong action with Jean-Phillippe and Ram!



Extra Santosh!



Hugo bends a bit!



Extra Ram!



Uncle-ish action!


More singalong action!



Bonus Ram!



More Hugo!



Hatless action!



Gripping action!



Contrabass action!



As I mentioned earlier, it's been a good half a decade since I saw Ukrainia in action, though I've caught all the members in other projects far more recently. Since then, there's been quite a bit of a lineup change. A trio of Hilotrons have been drafter in to fill in for Tom and Yogi. Here's Damian and Trons drummer Phil Bova.



And stage right, guitarist Paul Hogan (also of the Empiricals, etc.) and Mike Schultz, whose keyboards provided a big boost to the band's sound.



I'd better through this pic og Mike up now, because I think it's the only good one I got ...



Dave rocks the low end.



Guitar action!



Mike sings!



Extra Phil!



Gripping action!



More Damian and Dave!



Face-making action!



A really excellent show.