Throughout the years, the duo of Rodrigo Y Gabriela have kept their two guitar idea fresh by implementing various musical environments, having performed in concert ranging from teaming with rock bands to acoustic duets. They’ve also altered their material, with songs ranging from Pink Floyd to flamenco.
This time around, the two made their concert seem almost like a visual orchestration, with various projected films in the background of various things such as geometric shapes to Etch-A-Sketch. Introducing each song were various types of ambient sounds, usually electric, dark and ominous, as if to segue into the next aural painting on the wall. At times the two appeared on their respective stages almost as characters in a scene from a Hitchcock film, such as Vertigo.
Most successful was the idea of bringing in jazz drummer Antonio Sanchez, who was featured in various pieces, such as the opening “True Nature” that had the Pat Metheny alumnus adding drama to rockish riffs provided by the two leaders behind not only a mist of fog, but a cagelike barrier.
After the dust cleared the mix of Gabriela’s sensuous Latin flamenco sketches and Rodrigo’s rock star riffs created wondrous drama and themes as on “The Eye That Catches The Dream” and “Egoland” the latter including Rodrigo on a pair of guitars to form a serenade in a village plaza. The pair galloped thorugh “Descending to Nowhere” before Sanchez returned for a serenade of passion on “Seeking Unreality” and “ The Ride of The Mind”. Sanchez’s mallets created the perfect dreamy mood for the juxtaposition of Gabriela’s tender strums and Rodrigo’s bel canto electric streams.
From there, the pair romped and stomped to the Sci Fi sounds and police lights of “Broken Rage” with Rodrigo adding some VOX to the Andalusian tones of “Finding Myself Leads to You”. The mix of metal and melody ended the evening with “In Between Thoughts…A New World” all the way through to the anthem’d encore of “Tamacun”.
It was difficult to discern whether the added visuals added to or detracted from the actual music. One couldn’t help wonder if the event was a sonic event, or simply an “event”. The music itself makes one anticipate the upcoming album, and maybe the dvd will be played once or twice
Upcoming events at the YouTube Theater include 70’s Soultrain 07/07 and America 08/26