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For the first time since its founding 10 years ago, the Ukrainian urban-folk band Kommuna Lux will tour the West Coast, making several stops in the Bay Area in September and October.

With a core group consisting of Bagrat Tsurkan on lead vocals, Volodymyr Gitin on clarinet, Oleg Vasyanovych on accordion, Yaroslav Besh on trombone, and Serhii Poltorak on drums — along with a rotation of other musicians — the band performs 100-year-old folk tunes inspired by the dark humor of “street bandit” folklore, klezmer and Balkan rhythms. 

From its early days, the Odesa-based band embraced the street musician spirit. The conservatory-trained musicians started out playing at fish markets, beaches, tram lines, promenades and restaurants around the city. Over time, the liveliness, danceability and bohemian nostalgia of the performances landed Kommuna Lux shows on local stages and throughout Europe. It has performed for years at Ukraine’s important music festivals, including the Kyiv Klezmer Fest, as well as at the International Klezmer Festival in Fürth, Germany, and at the Rodeo Pub in Haifa. In 2018, the band won Germany’s annual folk music award. 

“When they play live, I get chills,” said Jeanine Renne, the band’s U.S. touring manager. “I’ve had people come up to me and say, ‘That was a version of “Hava Nagila” that I never knew I needed.’”

Gitin, who is the band’s musical director and only fully Jewish member, was interested in exploring the prominence of Jewish culture in Odesa’s history when he first joined the band. But it soon became clear that the similarities between Ukrainian Jewish culture and old Odesan culture outnumber their differences. 

“Klezmer isn’t necessarily Jewish music in Odesa because Odesa is a city with hundreds of years of being a port on the Black Sea,” Renne said. “It’s one of the most tolerant cities in Europe, and Jewish culture has always been part of being in Odesa. … It’s kind of a pancultural music as opposed to just Jewish music.”

The band’s name is sometimes mistranslated as “brilliance of community” or “community of light.” But the concept behind it is rooted in Soviet history, Renne said. “Kommuna” represents the urban communal apartments, or “Kommunalkas,” of the former Soviet Union, where families from a mix of backgrounds were forced to live in cramped environments either by assignment or as squatters. “Lux” is a play on this concept, conveying the band as a sort of “deluxe” Kommunalka. 

Though this is the band’s West Coast debut, it played the East Coast last year and again this year as part of the current tour. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a trans-Atlantic tour has been no easy feat for the band, with some members getting stranded en route to the United States due to visa issues. 

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The band has also experienced musician turnover as a result of the war. Kommuna Lux’s former bassist, Yevhen Kuchurka, left the band shortly after the war broke out to serve in the Ukrainian army. 

Since then, the band has held donation drives and used proceeds from its shows to purchase equipment for Kuchurka’s unit as well as provide support to other battalions in which the band’s friends and relatives are fighting. Most recently, the band began collaborating with Rotary Club Kiev to purchase beds for a burn unit in a frontline hospital. Proceeds from the band’s West Coast tour will also contribute to this initiative. 

“Probably the coolest thing about [the band members] is they’re really nice guys,” Renne said. “A lot of times, musicians have big egos, and you don’t want to hang around with them. … Not these guys. They have big hearts, and are just fun, kind, humble people.”

Kommuna Lux

7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26, at the Oshman Family JCC, 3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto, $45-$60

3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 29, at Congregation Beth Shalom, 1705 Sherwood Ave. Modesto, $20-$25, free for 12 and under

8 p.m. Monday, Sept. 30, at the Back Room, 1984 Bonita Ave., Berkeley, $25, free for 12 and under

8:15 p.m. Monday, Oct. 7, at the Lost Church, 427 Mendocino St., Santa Rosa, $25.