June 21: Ezgija & Krekhts at the Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal

2 views

Skip to first unread message

Joyce Clyde

unread,

Jun 3, 2025, 12:43:53 PM6/3/25

to BBMDE1

From: Peter Bonos <peter...@64744561.mailchimpapp.com>

View this email in your browser

The Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal presents
Ezgija (8 pm)
Krekhts (10 pm)
Saturday, June 21
The Starry Plough Pub
3101 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA

Tickets: $20 general/$15 students
Doors open at 7 pm; Show starts at 8 pm
All ages before 10 pm. 21+ after 10 pm. Beer and wine available at the bar. Kitchen closes at 10 pm.

Ezgija is Santa Cruz’s newest band, serving up our favorite dance tunes from the Balkans, Anatolia, and beyond! With Shireen Nabatian’s sweet vintage vocals and soaring violin, we explore themes of love, loss, and celebration—presenting forgotten gems from the archives alongside fresh material from her yearly travels in Türkiye. Jonathan Kipp’s accordion playing is fierce and explosive, laced with a moody edge. Hossein Shoiaee adds unexpected twists and textures that keep things electric and genre-bending on guitar. And Evan Stuart holds it all together on bass, with warmth and heart at the core of every tune. Whether it's a smoky love ballad, a rowdy wedding song, or a mournful lament, EZGIJA brings the spirit of these traditions to dance floors around the Bay Area and beyond with joy, soul, and a lot of sass.
Like Ezgija on Facebook.

Krekhts: A krekht (קרעכץ) is a crack – a shrill cry of the clarinet or a break in the voice. An imperfection, but one which comes straight from the heart. Krekhts is a rough and ready Berkeley psycho-klezmer band that sifts through the deep drawers of Klezmer history — from the factory floor to the cheapest seats in the Second Avenue cabaret, to the Borscht Belt and the Yiddish radio. They play frenetic bulgars and soul-wrenching ballads in mameloshn (Yiddish), medineh-loshn (English) and loshnkoydesh (Hebrew). Mike Tal (guitar), Binya Kóatz (vocals), Atid Kimelman (clarinet), Aaron Goldstein (drums/vocals), Daniel Goldberg (alto sax), Ilya Kreymer (accordion) and Seng Chen (bass) forge gelt from the Yiddish past to pave the way towards the joyously liberated Yiddish future.
Listen to Krekhts on Bandcamp

Join Facebook Event

Event Webpage

Buy Tickets

The Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal presents a new rotation of bands on the third Saturday of each month at the Starry Plough Pub. Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal is a concert series featuring the other-worldy talent of musicians from the Bay Area and beyond performing Eastern European and Near Eastern folk music. A hub in the Bay Area Balkan music scene, the bacchanal provides a platform for a community of performers, folk dancers, regular attendants and new friends to revel together since 2011.

The Bacchanal depends on the promotional support of our friends and community. Please spread the word by forwarding this email and sharing on Facebook.