What Valerij Smahlij wants us to know is that things aren’t usually like this in the Soviet Union. Usually Hrono–the band he manages–plays for thousands of adoring fans in huge arenas and outdoor stadiums. There aren’t small, dingy clubs like this in Ukraine. In Ukrainian stadiums, Hrono uses lasers and smoke machines. There usually isn’t quite so much ear-splitting feedback back home, where they have better sound systems. And their dressing rooms there are a bit better equipped than the one here in River Grove.
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We’re sitting backstage in the dressing room of the Thirsty Whale with two members of Hrono, the most popular group in Ukraine. Their song “Ukraina, Ukraino” has practically replaced Ukraine’s national anthem; it’s played daily on radio and television to introduce news broadcasts. The soul of the six-person group, singer-songwriter Taras Petrynenko, recently received an award from Greenpeace for his song “Chernobyl Zone.” Now he’s slouched with singer Tatiana Horobets on a dirty green couch in a dank, smoky dressing room.
Petrynenko was born in Ukraine, the son of a journalist and a classical opera singer. He was schooled at a music conservatory and had plans to become a conductor. Then he got a copy of a black-market Beatles tape, which changed everything.
About a thousand members of Chicago’s Ukrainian community have packed the Thirsty Whale to hear Hrono. Some of the older members of the community are sticking pieces of napkin in their ears in preparation.
“Look at this,” he says, gesturing around himself. “All these people crowded in one place. All this smoke. All these people in this dirty nightclub. It must be just like what it is back in the Soviet Union.”
