Impressive Russian balalaika playing.

[TheTichon]

in soviet russia you cant impress people with just 139 % skill

[SlicedAnanas]

Amazing

[johnmacward]

Fuck Yngwie, Gilbert, Friedman, Eddie, Jimi, Ross, Dufour, Emmanuel.

That blew the balls off my body.

Guthrie forever though...

[douchechillum]

My God the Russians are a stoic race of people. If I saw that guy playing, I'd be rocking out as hard as he was.

[pigmydmm]

cool man great

[sociopathicpplkillr]

1. excellent playing

2. orgasm face XD

[domomomo1]

1. IN SOVIET RUSSIA balalaika plays you!!!!!!!!

2. he must masterbate alot

[is2150]

it is a cultural aspect of russian audiences to keep quiet during a performance as to not interfere with the performers act/art. if the performance is deserving of healthy applause, then once they are finished the crowd will give him a big hand.

it is a western(american) cultural aspect of audiences to make noises and give approval during the performance, but doing such a thing in russia would be considered poor behavior.

more importantly...this was a fantastic and unique performance.

[smutsigapa]

The guy in 1:56 got some vodka :D

And the guy in 2:59 gets a facepawn :P

[horchataistasty]

If you think the audience is dead, check your own facial expression, and posture.

[MasacruRo]

@horchataistasty was smiling and standing straight, problem?

[PetarMak]

Like it is the easiest thing in the world... Excellent.

[Sietse62]

He gets pretty ...ehm... active...

[jwoznik]

In some parts of the world you don't know if the audience digs it till the end when they applaud...They are pretty life-less though...haha.

[osmak100]

ako ovaj provali distorziju najebali smo

[CeroMetralleta]

Worst audience ever !

This guy rocks !

[commaqwat]

@CeroMetralleta

How are they a bad audience?

They went fucking wild right after his performance.

Do you prefer it when people scream over your music?

[Tegenaria]

absolutely amazing!!

[ShaneHowle]

wow. I see what you mean about the people not into it, but I could tell most of them were. two guys were lost in the sound. awesome music makes me laugh hysterically. it's as if I don't believe it's true. that's what I would have been doing at this performance.

[Jarrahnut]

Great stuff! Who is this guy?

[zibaone]

Wow! AWESOME Talent. The footage of the audience can't possibly be his. Only one guy is into it @ 1:56. Here he is sawing his fingers off for them and they are completely unmoved and dead to his efforts. What a drag. Even the applause at the end was weak.

[ukasz84]

nosz kurwa

[chemicalvoodoo1]

mike gorden's long lost cousin

[MLuddyJr]

Why did they splice in clips of the audience at a city council committee meeting?

[myztic123]

crowd is dead or what?

[samisyosam]

@myztic123 They're watching him play. Why does a person have to do anything to appreciate a performance? Are you only satisfied when you see people headbanging and sticking their lighters in the air?

You must be one of those americans who finds it irresistible to clap on 1 and 3, regardless of whether the performer needs you to act like a shitty metronome while they're playing. Whenever people do that during one of my shows, I actually stop and tell them not to. It's as bad as heckling.

[myztic123]

@samisyosam for example one person was clearly asleep.

[GENIUSGT]

This is where I live.

[WhenFFWillOut24]

:30 he's sleeping lol

[cyanidemoon]

1:13 I can just picture what this woman is thinking "Oh yeah .. it's.. okay, but I bet I could do better"

[kaynaage]

I find this video.. Easy to masturbate to.

[cubeface21]

So fucking awesome!

[Angelwings975]

He's enjoying it more than the crowd is. <3 Musicians who put their heart into their music.

[RippinSkullz]

Wow would this ever be incredibly hard on a small guitar let alone a regular sized one.. and I've been playing for 7 years

[hellashes]

Damn this guy's impressive!

[DeviousDamion]

Who is this man i need answers.

[mishelleke]

@DeviousDamion it's alexei arkhipovski, my new hero ;-)

[TheSneezyP]

Looks like an edited-in audience.

[procarpenter1788]

This is almost superhuman.

[alittlehebrew]

Something about this sounds just like 8-bit NES music.

[hopkinsb4]

He had a Harry Dunne "Dumb and Dumber" explosive diarrhea facial expression at 3:48.

[vipersa87]

@hopkinsb4

i lol'd. hahah, totally looks like that

[GUITARISTED]

This guys is amazing but crowd is weak. Not sure if they can't believe what he's playing or they are mad no vodka was served.

[ReductioAdAbsurdum]

@GUITARISTED "This guys is amazing but crowd is weak."

Or it's a different culture and they have different norms about audience behavior (like... listening respectfully *shock*)

[SirHouseFly]

@ReductioAdAbsurdum 2:59 is that guy laughing? or does their culture laugh different.

[kakadrulli]

@ReductioAdAbsurdum yep. like in america everybody would scream in a high pitched tone troughout the whole video and nobody could hear a thing

[GUITARISTED]

@ReductioAdAbsurdum "listening respectfully" is one thing, responding like zombies...pathetic.

[Direnaar]

@GUITARISTED if you watch till the end you will see them clapping and cheering. They were enjoying the performance instead of acting like ravenous baboons. Props to the balalaikaman.

[GUITARISTED]

@Direnaar "clapping and cheering"...see woman gray sweat jacket, red t-shirt, @ 3:50...It looks like she feels forced to clap with others. The only one who I thought trully appreciated this performance was the fellow 2 seats to her right. He was living in the "space" with performer.

[bambi005]

@GUITARISTED The crowd is not weak. You do not cheer or make a ruckus when someone is performing. This is not a rock concert. They are immersed in the music and you can tell they enjoyed it when they clapped and cheered at the end.

[Punkatch]

@GUITARISTED The problem is, they were waiting for something else. On the balalaika - russian folk music to play. But it is some dillholeism. Be happy, that they didnt kill this blasfer!

[35sdphoto]

@Punkatch everyone was clapping at the end and some gave yelps of joy. I think they were so amazed it was not the normal depressing folk music they play when they want to kill themselves from depression that they were completely awe struck. Here we are so lucky to have so many choices even when it comes to weather we don't get much amazingness that stupefies us till the end. we should ship out all those in the audience and the balalaika player out here and replace them with your sorry ass.

[genjio]

My family used to have one of these. My dad sold it for potatoes. Goddammit.

[UnbrokenCheese]

This is some serious shit, but how come everyone in the audience looks like they're trying to pass a brick?

[weegingayin]

Eat your heart out Jake Shimabukuro :-)

[iwannahugadoobie]

you already know its goin down once he jerks his head back

[vito2316]

DAH RUSKI!!!

[gosoxmattg]

Incredible! Anyone know who this is? I'm not very familiar with too many contemporary balalaika players.

[MattH2580]

Holy Jesus. I've got to learn the balalaika now.

[DocCallihan]

this guys rocks.