At the time, the gig was scheduled for Carling Academy 2, the small-fry venue, and no one I tried to get to go with me had even heard of them.

The band's biggest brush with mainstream exposure came last year when frontman Eugene Hutz performed an idiosyncratic verison of La Isla Bonita with Madonna at Live Earth, puzzling quite a few members of the crowd at Wembley.

Quite surprising, then, to find what a following they seem to have built up.

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Not only was the debut gig of their new tour upgraded to Academy 1, but it was also packed to capacity, with shirt-unimpinged frontman Hutz effortlessly dragging his audience into a world where fiddles and accordions are the in-thing, and campfire bacchanalia the default mode of indie anthems - all the fun of a gypsy lifestyle without actually being run out of town.

Being a bit of a Bordello agnostic, the band performed a few songs I'd heard before, and a few that I hadn't.

Of the former, Wonderlust King, Supertheory of Supereverything and American Wedding were well-received, while Start Wearing Purple was applauded like it was the huge hit single the band have never had.

In fact, when I condescendingly deciphered the chant for the friend I'd dragged along to the gig with me, he informed me he'd in fact already heard the song on Radio One, and it turned out to be popular enough for a couple of people around me to start playing air-violin along to it.

They've been acclaimed as a particularly energetic live act, and that was certainly confirmed with this performance.

Not only did the calls for an encore begin before the band had even left the stage, but when it came, it lasted a good seven or eight songs.

Hutz concluded the show by welcoming newcomers to the Gogol Bordello family - judging by the crowd, that means I now have a few cool indie nephews and an awful lot of hipster uncles.