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Gypsy rock band Gogol Bordello, performing Sunday at the Troubadour, has been known to destroy mo

Eugene Hütz is like a wedding singer, birthday party clown and Jackass cast member rolled into one skinny Ukrainian man with a handle-bar moustache.

With acrobatic flips, magic tricks and an indulgence in harming equipment and himself to embellish his rough musical act, the frontman of Gogol Bordello violently stretches the role of a singer. But for the East Coast-based band that will plow through the Troubadour this Sunday, a trail of circus-like destruction only helps its popularity.

“This band never failed even once to raise hell on a show and have everybody stomping like it was their last day of lives,” said Hütz.

Gogol Bordello, named after 19th-century absurdist writer Nikolai Gogol, is a group of immigrants and refugees from Israel, the Ukraine and Russia, plus an American drummer. They play Eastern European gypsy music through a punk-rock filter– like polka with the tempo turned up and a whole lot of vodka poured into the mix.

“Yeah, it’s a lot of accordion, but the (stuff) that comes with it is going to blow your mind,” said Hütz.

But the use of traditional instruments and styles doesn’t reflect on a nostalgia for the Soviet bloc. In fact, the effect is quite the opposite. By taking a slice of traditional flavors, adding something new and then putting the whole thing in the blender, Gogol Bordello challenges the post-modern notion that everything has already been done.

“People say that, on one hand, it sounds like Russian gypsy music, and on the other hand it sounds like Jamaican dance hall. Exactly, that’s what I’m saying: Possibilities are limitless,” Hütz said.

Hütz is a self-described alcoholic, a vice which is probably useful to numb his body to the hazards of his performance. He frequently injures himself on stage, both by accident – banging his head on a bass drum while attempting a cartwheel – and on purpose, extinguishing a cigarette on his bare chest or pouring hot wax in his mouth.

His masochism is part of his passionate delivery; it’s his way of showing he is sincere.

Audiences respond well to the reckless energy Gogol Bordello brings. At New York venues which the band frequents, including Joe’s Pub and The Fez, audiences actually get up on tables and dance. The Fez suffered great losses of furniture and dishes after the first time the Gogol tornado touched down, but after tallying up profits and demand from enthusiastic patrons, the band was asked to return.

A big part of Gogol Bordello’s statement is to challenge today’s popular music.

“We ended up in America because we were deeply fascinated with American musicians, and then we get here and it’s all in this rotten state,” Hütz said.

He regrets the loss of such acts as The Cramps, Fugazi, The Cows and The Jesus Lizard, who made music back when it was about making an artistic statement and not just trying to get signed to a label.

“All this (stuff) on the charts is complete garbage,” said Hütz. “There is so much music happening in the world that is full of energy and creative, inspiring power, that it seems to be absurd to go out and buy some record that you’ve heard on the radio.”

But fortunately, Hütz believes people still have the capacity to respond to art that has verve, and the overwhelmingly positive reactions his shows elicit is testament to this.

“There are a lot of people that are into a lot of progressive (stuff),” said Hütz. “They come out of the woodwork once they hear the bell chime.”