Chervona

Portland's Chervona formed four years ago with immigrants from Russia, Armenia, Kazakh, Poland, Brazil and Argentina. They appear monthly at the Secret Society and for the past three years steady they've been packing in capacity crowds every Last Thursday at the Alberta Street Pub while maintaining a full schedule of gigs, including events like the PDX Bridgefest and PDX Pop Now! They've shared the stage with international touring groups Manu Chao, Gogol Bordello and the Red Elvises, as well as Portland-grown acts like The Decemberists, March Fourth, 3 Leg Torso, Vagabond Opera and the Portland Cello Project.

Picture this: wall-to-wall dancers, whirling in a steamy cloud of 100-degree body heat, feet pounding time to Balkan-Punk beats. The Chervona experience is not for the faint of heart, nor the heat-stroke-sensitive... it's gypsy passion and unrestrained love of life spilling into the night like red wine.


"Chervona" is the essence of life, translating to "red" and/or "beautiful" in Ukrainian and Polish. For example, chervona vino = red wine; chervona devchina = beautiful girl.

THE BAND

Andreyushka Pitersky T_mkin - Lead Vocals, Guitar

Roman Ramonoff - Tuba, Bass Guitar

Andrew Alickhanov - Clarinet

Adam Schneider - Trombone

Tomass DeAlameida - Drums

Olimpia Trusty - Violin

Kyle Butz - Bass Trombone

Alma Laskoniene - MC, Muse, Designs & Promo, Special Events

CRITICAL PRAISE

"Along with Pitersky's over-the-top personality, gang vocals from the rest of the band made the performance quite theatrical... Madness was in the air. Someone passed around a giant box of chocolates... strangers twirled one another in the crowd..."

-- Jason Simms, The Oregonian

"It is impossible to describe Chervona's sound without sounding ridiculous. Vagabonding gypsy folk-punk? Russian fever-folk? Neo-Bohemian dance-rock? Punk/big band fusion? Regardless, Chervona's musical styling is raucously unique... What stands out the most is Chervona's lack of reliance on flimsy kitsch. They are adamant about being seen not as another band that uses its Eastern European heritage as a gimmick. Rather, they set out to make the best possible music they know how, regardless of their background."

-- Pat Moran, The Deli Magazine

"If you're familiar with Gogol Bordello or the Red Elvises, you already have a sense of the dance madness a band like this can create. Chervona is a bit different than those two bands, however, as frontman Andreyshka Pitersky plays traditional Russian military songs, folk songs and drinking songs (in English and Russian), but allows influences to sneak in from all of the other band members' ethnic backgrounds."

-- Vanessa Salvia, Eugene Weekly