SOUNDTRACK: RODRIGO Y GABRIELA-NonCOMM (May 16, 2019).
The biggest shame of NonCOMM 2019 is that Rodrigo y Gabriela only got 19 minutes. Oh man, these two need an hour to show off everything they can do. The other shame is that the person who wrote the blurb doesn’t know the song titles.
Normally their show–two people playing acoustic guitar–is a surprisingly loud and percussive affair. Gabriela slaps her guitar and plays amazing drum-like sounds across the strings, while Rodrigo solos all over the fretboard. Even though they play acoustic guitars, they have metal in their blood (they recently covered Slayer).
But this show is a rather quiet affair. They begin with a quiet piece with a simple backing guitar line and a lead line that runs through the song.
Rodrigo y Gabriela may have started off their set with a soft, lullaby-ish tune, illuminated only by a single spotlight. But don’t get too comfortable with that mellow sound, beautiful as it is, because what followed after was a loud, jarring song that gave us a taste of what heavy metal might sound like if it could only be played with two guitars.
It segued into “Krotona Days” a heavy opening thuds before the two masters take off through fast and slow, loud and quiet.
Often standing face to face with their guitars in hand, Rodrigo y Gabriela engage in a conversation without any words, their narration punctuated by lighting perfectly selected to match each emotion. Even in the absence of lyrics, the listener is drawn into the band’s vulnerability; it’s as if they’ve invited us in as witnesses of their funky, fiery story as it unwinds song by song.
‘After Gabriela talks to everyone, they play “Electric Soul,” another quieter song. Usually they are blowing our minds with speed, but here they demonstrate beautiful restraint.
The next song starts slowly, but after a build up of Gabriela’s percussive guitar it… returns to a quiet melody again including some harmonics. I’m almost disappointed that they didn’t really do what they are known for, but this demonstration of a different side of them is pretty amazing too.
Most of these songs come from their new album Mettavolution, which features six original instrumental compositions, many of which we did get to hear.
They end the set with the titular song “Mettavolution.” On the record it is a big loud raucous affair with loud pummeling chords to open. It’s a bit more subdued here even if the main riff is still pretty intense.
I’m not sure why they chose to play so quietly, but it’s an interesting take on their music.
[READ: June 1, 2019] “On Impact”
When I was in high school, Stephen King was my favorite writer. I read everything he’d written. When I got to college I was really bummed that the school library had no Stephen King at all. My freshman year I read the Tommyknockers and didn’t really like it and I think that was the last I’d thought about Stephen King.
At some point in the 1990s I read some of his newer books and remembered why I liked him so much. Maybe I should go back and start all over again–will Salem’s Lot freak me out now as much as it did then? I don’t know.
I don’t recall if I knew that he had been in a car accident. I know I found out some years later (possibly when I read On Writing). It’s also possible that this essay comes from that book. It’s been 19 years, don’t remember, but I’m guessing the title of this is a nod to the book.
This essay more or less tells, in whatever detail her can remember, exactly what happened to him on the day he was struck by a van. The guy driving the van was trying to keep his dog from opening the Igloo cooler in the back seat when he drove right into King.
King names names. The guy who hit him (Bryan Smith, who received six months of county jail time), the EMT who saved his life (Paul Fillebrown), the surgeon (David Brown) and anyone else who he can remember from that day.
He talks about being helicoptered to the hospital, the excruciating pain he was in and the shocking amount of damage his body received (he was hit by the van an flew over the top (fourteen feet in the air?) and somehow missed landing on anything that would have broken him even more.
He entered the hospital on June 19th. Sometime in early July he started physical therapy. By July 4th, he could sit up. He returned home on July 9th. On July 24th he started writing again.
It hurt to sit, he couldn’t get comfortable, could barely think about anything but the pain. How could he focus on writing? His wife Tabitha was a huge help to him (I love that he says “Our marriage has outlasted all of the world leaders except Castro”–and now Castro, too).
The words started coming slowly and things have continued to get better. Some might even say that he’s written some of his best work since the accident.
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