Fanfare Ciocărlia + Red Baraat: 14 July 2013

If you’ve been following along the Events side of things the last half year or so here at PopMatters, you’ll recall that Red Baraat, the openers for Fanfare Ciocărlia’s Summerstage show, put on a wild, loud, live performance. And their Sunday super-hot-afternoon set was no different. The band continues to charge full-throttle in every show, and devising new ways to make their show bigger. This time, as their set wrapped up, Red Baraat welcomed like twenty of their musician friends to join them on stage. But they didn’t just stroll up, those folks first began playing out on the Summerstage turf amongst the surprised crowd, slowly working their way towards the front and up onto the stage. Totally a fun performance that had much of the audience up on their feet.

When the twelve piece gypsy brass outfit Fanfare Ciocărlia made their way to the stage, the sun was lower in the sky and no less blazing. Clad in reds and blacks, the musicians were directly in the light of the sun and the group demonstrated the true Balkan sound, unlike some of those indie bands who pull from that region. The audience was quickly dancing to the Romanian tunes, forming circles together or just swaying along wherever they stood. As always, Summerstage is family friendly, so if you made a sweeping glance you would see half a dozen babies bopping along in the arms of their parents. It was a rare chance to check out a band I’d never have thought to see otherwise, one of the many unique offerings Summerstage provides New Yorkers.