Just got back from the Jose Gonzalez concert that Gillman wasn’t allowed to attend, allowed to attend, couldn’t attend, and attended. (Ticket troubles, sheesh!)
The opener, Mia Doi Todd made “pretty”music, but it was too quaint for my liking. Enjoyable, yes, but it reminded me of the type of CD 58-year-old couples from Chicago’s North Shore suburbs pop into their stereos with Bose speakers before sipping on a nice red (never referred to as “wine,” only by color.) I spent most of her set daydreaming and trying to figure out if she got her puffy curls cut into layers, or if it just grew out like that.
Jose, though, was fantastic. Wholly submerged in mostly purple and blue lighting, he played the first few songs solo on the guitar, highlighting how phenomenal he and the sound at Chicago’s Lakeshore Theatre are.
Around the fourth or fifth song, back-ups came out to join him onstage, and stuck with him for the rest of the show, except for one solo encore song. Sandwiched between a conga player and a…well, we’ll get to her later, Jose continued to wow the crowd with his tunes in the insanely intimate setting (I felt uncomfortable taking photos, that’s how dark and quiet it was.)
On the congas was a dude dressed in an orange sweatshirt emblazoned with a tiger a la Flight of the Conchords‘ Bret whose drumming helped to round out the sound and his vocals didn’t hurt, but the lady sitting opposite of him was a different story. Inferably, she was a “make yourself useful and pick up a rice shaker” charity case of a girlfriend. (Well, half inferred — I saw them together before the show entering for sound check.)
All in all, her barely-on-beat cowbell clangs and percussionist shaketyshakes added little to the music, even if her voice added less, since I’m convinced she was fake singing. (Two extras on stage and there’s no vocal harmony, even with a girl on Jose’s side? Lame.) But, besides the onstage deadweigh, Jose’s performance was phenomenal.
[I’m trying to wrap this up at 2:17 am and this is what i zoned out and wrote as the final line: “Besides the onstage deadweight win.” I think I’ll leave it there.]
Carlye Wisel: if sarah silverman, stacy london, buster bluth and ari gold had a love child, it would be me.
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Carlye Wisel
if sarah silverman, stacy london, buster bluth and ari gold had a love child, it would be me.
Dan Newman (Dan Newman) says:
(Posted March 18th, 2008 at 11:47 am)
Ooooo… pictures with your new camera? They look GREAT! And way to finish up at 2:17… you are the217, through-and-through.