I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: November 14, 2017] Rodrigo y Gabriela

My friends Liz and Eleanor came to the Rod y Gab show back in 2014 and we were blown away.  So when I saw they were playing in the Count Basie Theater and that I could get seats in Row G, I snatched seats up for all four of us again.

The last time was just such a phenomenal experience that I knew I’d want to see them again.  And being up so close and really seeing everything they were doing was a really super phenomenal experience.

I don’t know the song titles and we kind of joked that the songs all sound the same (but amazing and strangely unique at the same time) so I didn’t worry too much about what they were playing, I just sat back and enjoyed it.

Rodrigo walked out first and played some amazing solo work, getting us all warmed up.  After a couple of minutes, Gabriela came out and they were pretty much together on stage for the next 90 minutes.

They are a perfect duo.  Rodrigo does most of the lead guitar work–playing fast solos and melodies.  meanwhile, Gabriela plays an incredibly percussive rhythm guitar.  I have never seen anything like what she does.  Her right hand is just amazing to watch.  The two make an awesome combination.

Rodrigo told us that they have been doing this tenth anniversary tour of their first album for a couple of years now (pretty funny).  And that in the last five shows or so, they have changed the format.  They didn’t want to do the same setlist for fear that it was getting stale.  He told us that they were changed the style to be more like a TED talk, where we could ask questions and just chat.  Boy am I glad no one had any questions.  We just let them get to the music.

I’m looking at what I wrote last time and so much of it is true this time as well:

Their stage set with pretty minimal.  But it didn’t matter, the two of them are electric on stage–whether it’s Rodrigo’s heavy metal stances or Gabriela’s pogoing, they are in constant motion [except for the seated section]….  In addition to some interesting imagery, they also projected close ups of their guitars (I think from small cameras in front of them and from small cameras on the heads of their guitars).  I enjoyed that the images were low res and that they were staticy from time to time–it took any kind of preciousness away and made it look less like they were showing off their virtuosity and more like an interesting image to watch.

They played a couple of songs and then Gabriela took to the microphone to tell us a bit about their time recording their first album.  The stories were quite funny.  How they had been spending years touring around Ireland and begged to go back to Mexico to record their record.  So they were there for a month drinking margaritas and cerveza and never recorded a thing.  So they went back to Ireland and blasted out the debut in a week.

After playing a few songs, they brought out chairs and Rodrigo said they were going to play all of the first album–but not in order because they don’t remember the order anyway.  I have no idea if that’s what they did.  I was just mesmerized, watching these two people sitting down, holding an entire audience captive.

When they finished, they got up and did some more running around.  I really liked that they switched places–coming to either side of the stage so we could get close ups of both of them.

The big difference this time was that Rodrigo has some effects on his guitar–a wah effect and some other electronicy sounds that brought something new to the sound.  Not necessary by any means, but still cool.  He even used a guitar slide on one of the solos.

There was some of Metallica’s “Orion” again, but this time it was less “precise” and more just rocking out.  And of course, Rodrigo can play some beautiful “classical” style.

They encored with a rocking instrumental version of Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name Of.”   It was pretty funny to see a fairly reserved crowd up and singing along to “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me,” while Gabriela smiled away.

Rod y Gab really have to be seen to be believed.