Klezmer-style group Les Yeux Noirs gives stunning show at music hall

It's a strange, striking mix of Eastern European klezmer music and gypsy styles, played by a French group with two violinists and a cellist.

That's Les Yeux Noirs -- French for "The Dark Eyes" -- a six-piece troupe that has won rave reviews from music critics at newspapers such as The Los Angeles Times and The San Francisco Chronicle for their energetic, provocative sound.

The group, formed 12 years ago by brothers/violinists Eric and Olivier Slabiak, manages to work a fresh, almost raucous vitality into their swinging, traditional fare. There's an originality that's impossible to deny.

At the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall on Saturday night, Les Yeux Noirs thrilled a half-filled house with a lively, incredible performance that will be remembered for a long while.

Without question, this show is an early musical highlight of 2003.

Led by the Slabiaks, the group was a musical whirlwind from the moment they took the stage. From jazz-influenced, bouncy, gypsy folk songs to intense, traditional music that would fit easily into the soundtracks of movies such as "Schindler's List," Les Yeux Noirs was nothing but impressive on a freezing Saturday night.

The band -- the Slabiaks, guitarist Pascal Rondeau, bassist Franck Anastasio, cellist Francois Perchat and drummer Aidje Tafial -- had a true rock vibe; they even looked like a lean rock band, what with the Slabiaks wearing dark shirts and leather pants as they sawed away at their violins, Eric Slabiak often wearing a sly smile as he put the group through its paces.

And they were tight, very tight, to the point where songs would sometimes undergo drastic tempo changes, speeding up, slowing down, but never throwing off Rondeau, Anastasio, Perchat and Tafial -- who augmented his drums with recorded drum tracks.

Lovely Melody

Splitting their show into two 50-minute sets, Les Yeux Noirs opened the concert with the title cut from their latest album "Balamouk" (which means "house of fools" in Romanian). Tafial's pulsing beat pushed Olivier Slabiak's eerie, echoed-out violin while Eric Slabiak played a lilting Yiddish melody over the top -- a wonderful, infectious combination.

Band members said little to the crowd, preferring to let their music do the talking. What little conversation there was was handled by Eric Slabiak, who thanked fans for coming out and expressed -- in broken English -- how lucky he felt to be playing in the United States.

The people at the Music Hall were the lucky ones.

The Slabiaks are truly gifted violinists, proving that time and time again as they romped through songs such as the dynamic "Cioara" and a giddy Yiddish song Eric Slabiak translated to mean "Don't Wake Me Up Before the Sun Shines."

The brothers would often take off into these amazing solos, Eric daring Olivier to keep up with him as he and the beat took off at breakneck speed. That was the case through the evening; most songs started slowly, only to build up to an almost manic tempo before they ended.

The brothers, who handled most of the vocal duties, showed themselves to be pretty solid singers as well, singing mainly in Russian and Yiddish. Olivier has the better voice of the two, singing a lovely gypsy ballad with a dark, stark passion.

Don't be surprised if you start seeing and hearing more of Les Yeux Noirs in the days and months to come. This band is just too good to stay a secret for too much longer. Kudos to the Music Hall for bringing this group to town; this sextet has to be seen -- and heard -- to be believed and appreciated.

By Michael Lisi