Exotic, tight harmonies, percussive acoustic guitars and a solid background in... thrash metal? They hail from Mexico, via Ireland, and their story is as interesting as the music. Catch them Fri, Sept 7 at the Marquee and Sat, Sept 8 at the Rialto. Tickets available at all Bookmans locations.
The self-titled Rodrigo y Gabriela starts off with "Tamacun". A tribute to Erroberto Piza, who, according to the liner notes, is working to save the few remaining crocodiles in Ixtapa, Zihuatanejo. The song itself is a bouncing lively celebration. On the accompanying DVD, Piza is shown to be quite the showman, in bright soccer style clothes, and sitting on the crocodile's backs for small crowds. The multi-hued musical presentation invokes proud latin jazz mixed comfortably with an informal village dance, with lots of competitive emoting. The percussive guitar is so drum like that it is very easy to forget in the fullness of their sound there are only two musicians, and no effects.
"Diablo Rojo" is the musical equivalent of their ride on the Red Devil Roller coaster in Denmark. When I watched the DVD performance, my son asked if they were racing each other. Tribal percussion, (again the guitars) combined with lightning fast spins and loop de loops.
Infused throughout the disc is the influence of their metal years. They were in a Mexican metal and "made it", though found the Mexico City metal scene a dead end. One of their most beloved performance tricks is slipping in bits of Metallica's "One", and also Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven". But fans demanded the complete reading of the latter at performances, and (despite my subconsciously hearing the lyrics to Gilligan's Island in every version)... it's easy to see why. Influenced by Stanley Jordan's version, they bring just the right balance of fervor and flavor to the piece.
This is by far the most vital, exciting acoustic guitar music I've heard in a while. Lively, eclectic, lushly recorded and filled with extras, it's a great addition to your library.
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