At the Commodore Ballroom on Saturday, October 11

Considering the Commodore was in a state of rapturous pandelirium from the moment Gogol Bordello exploded onto the stage on Saturday, it's incredible that one moment stood out above all others. But, perhaps predictably, the insanity reached its apex during the Eastern bloc punk-polka of "Start Wearing Purple". Stripped to the waist and sweating like he'd spent two hours on the StairMaster in a Turkish bath, mustachioed madman of a singer Eugene Hí¼tz grabbed a bottle of red wine and proceeded to act like David Hasselhoff at closing time. As he showered himself, his bandmates, and his set list with Burgundy, every frenzied fan who'd had the foresight to wear purple suddenly stormed the stage.

When a Seth Rogen doppelgí¤nger made it past the monitors, only to be pounced on by security, Hí¼tz came to the rescue, wrestling him away from the bouncers after three tries. With the whipped-up crowd screaming like Romans at the Coliseum, the imitation Seth showed his appreciation by pulling out a hip flask and sharing it midsong with Gogol Bordello's master of ceremonies. Eyes watering, the two happily finished off "Start Wearing Purple", the backing vocals provided by a thousand Vancouverites who seemed to think they were at a Russian wedding in the heart of horilka country.

The self-proclaimed Gypsy-punks got everyone but the bartenders onboard the old-fashioned way: through hard work, with Hí¼tz showing that he might be among the 10 most charismatic front men in rock 'n' roll. And even if there's a vague whiff of shtick to the band-the Ukraine-raised singer moved to New York City in 1990, but at 36 still sounds like he just stumbled out of the Easter egg factory-somehow that didn't matter. The crowd was so crazily into it that, to get laid afterward, pretty much all you had to do was go up to the nearest convert and announce "Привет, я - из Харькова"

Even if Hí¼tz speaks the Queen's English in private, the important thing is he sounds and looks the part, right down to his Eastern European–issue track pants. Accordion player Yuri Lemeshev's day job is, by all appearances, selling pickles in a Polish deli, while silver-bearded violinist Sergey Ryabtsev rocks the kind of look you normally see behind the counter at Spartacus Books. As for the band's two scantily clad Asian backup dancers-who later made a spectacle of themselves with an oversized college-band marching drum-it's good to see that not all the Fly Girls ended up unemployed after In Living Color folded its tent.

It all worked, thanks to the stop-on-a-dime musicianship. Guitarist Oren Kaplan took home the unsung-hero award for injecting plenty of CBGB grit into a set that gave you a great idea of what the Warped Tour would sound like if Borat were in charge of programming.

How most excellently out of control was Gogol Bordello? Well, let's just say that when a complete stranger approached you and asked to climb onto your back for "20 seconds-not a second more", you happily obliged, not because she looked like an alt-rock Snow White, but more because it proved you were officially part of the Gypsy-punk party.