(2010.08.18) Rodrigo Y Gabriela @ The Greek Theatre, L.A.

OK, the relevance of this post is thinning out with each passing day, particularly because I'm seeing these guys again tomorrow night at Stubb's in Austin. There's been so much going on this summer that reviews have firmly taken a back seat. So, let's crank this thing out.

The wife and kids and I took a trip to Los Angeles for my birthday a couple weeks ago. As luck would have it, the maniacal acoustic duo of Rodrigo Y Gabriela happened to be playing the Greek Theatre our first night there. We had become fairly big fans with their 2006 self-titled debut album, and since the release of 2009's magnificent follow-up 11:11, I had been practically foaming at the mouth to see them live. We enlisted my wife's brother and his friend to hit the show with us. After a healthy helping of Maker's Mark and Coke to shake off the long day of flight-hopping and child-wrangling, we headed out into the perfect, cool Southern California evening and made our way to the venue.

After snagging a couple drinks and a bottle of wine (seriously, ladies?) from the concession, we sought out our seats and took stock of the venue. I had heard of the Greek Theatre before, but had never been there. It was very nice, nestled within the trees on a bit of a hill. Comparing it to other legendary outdoor venues, it had a serene coziness about it, rather than the awesome majesty of Red Rocks or the sweaty, dripping funk of character of Stubb's. The trees surrounding all sides of the theater gave it a sense of peaceful isolation, which complemented the cool night air very nicely.

Anyway, after an opener that I didn't really pay much attention to, Rodrigo and Gabriela slipped in from the sides, strapped up, and went to work. Here's the set:

01. Intro (Very similar to the "OK Tokyo" intro from the Live In Japan Album)

02. Hanuman

03. Triveni (Impromptu jamming by Gab while Rod replaced a broken string)

04. Diablo Rojo

05. Satori

06. Logos/Santo Domingo

07. Chac Mool/Hora Zero

08. Gabriela Solo

09. Juan Loco

10. Orion (with Shankar and Trujillo)

11. Volcano Jam (with Shankar and Trujillo)

12. Rodrigo Solo (Pulling Teeth!!!)

13. Savitri

14. Mediterranean Sundance (Al di Meola Solo/Jamming)

15. Tamacun

(break)

16. Buster Voodoo

As hoped, this show completely blew me away! Listening to their albums, you obviously get a good sense of RyG's technical proficiency, but seeing them live is a total shock to the system. The awe I experience listening to their material is now trumped only by my eyes' complete disbelief while actually seeing it happen in front of me. Rodrigo's fingers fly across the frets of his guitar like some deranged, frantic crab on crystal meth. One moment he's delicately plucking out a slow, isolated, moody melody, and the next he's shredding through some 100mph arpeggio-laden riffage that I can hardly keep up with. And Gabriela, I don't even know how to describe what she's doing, it makes absolutely no sense. When I first heard RyG, and particularly after hearing their second album, I figured there HAD to be some third person in there, lending a hand with the percussive elements. Nope. Nyet. Nuh-uh. All while ripping through those head-spinning rhythms, in those fractions of fractions of seconds between striking one string and striking another, she's absolutely beating the hell out of the body of her guitar with her thumb, pinky, and whatever other part of her hand that happens to be free. Who needs a drummer when you can just shatter the laws of physics? It was utterly jaw-dropping, my brain still hurts to think about it.

In total, they played for right around two hours, maybe a little more. The set was very comprehensive, covering probably about 75% of their studio work. Their original material was more often than not performed pretty true to the original recording, though they did manage to work some mid-number jamming in here and there (particularly when Rodrigo broke a string during "Triveni" not long into the show; apparently he was just as excited about this show as I was!). They did throw me for a big loop by sliding from "Chac Mool" into "Hora Zero" instead of "Atman". While I do love "Hora Zero" and the intro worked very well, it did put an exclamation point on what I thought was the only downer of the show: they did NOT play "Atman"!! This bummed me out because its pretty easily my favorite RyG song, and quite frankly I was a bit shocked at the omission of what I consider to be the best song they've written yet. But no matter, in general the show kicked way too much ass to dwell on this one detail.

In addition to their own original studio material, the show was loaded with all kinds of other surprises. Shankar and Robert Trujillo joined the duo to perform "Orion" (in its entirety!), which led into a fairly lengthy jam session, which ultimately ended with Shankar wailing incomprehensibly into the microphone. It was a bit tedious toward the end once Shankar started up with the vocals (Note: a RyG show should NEVER include vocals), but overall it was interesting enough. And toward the end of the show, guitar legend Al Di Meola made a special appearance. RyG gave up the spotlight and watched like kids in a toy store as Di Meola picked his way through a winding 10-minute-or-so rendition of Mediterranean Sundance, after which the duo joined in for some 3-guitar jamming madness. While I myself am not that familiar with Di Meola, the obvious excitement radiating from Rodrigo and Gabriela at this chance to play with one of their idols was infectious, and really made for a special moment. And as always, both Rodrigo and Gabriela got an opportunity for some solo jamming. Gabriela dazzled the crowd with some Les-Claypool-on-speed rhythm funkiness. Rodrigo on the other hand, played around with a beautiful slower melody, carefully plucking out and slightly varying the same repeated tune for a couple minutes, before launching into my highlight of the night: a full-on performance of Metallica's "Pulling Teeth"!!! I absolutely lost it at this point, leaping to my feet and screaming "Pulling Teeth?! Are you f%$&ing kidding me??!!!" Which was a bit awkward seeing as the whole theater was in a seated, restful state at the moment. (I saw about 4 other people in attendance who shared my incredulous excitement). Anyway, Rodrigo absolutely slayed it, and I loved every second of it.

Not to be lost in the glory of the setlist and the enthusiasm of the performance, the presentation of the show was exceptionally well done. Sonically, it was flawless. The deeper tones of the rhythm and the higher lead notes were all pristine, and bounced warmly around the venue. Gabriela's unconventional percussive elements were also nicely captured, lending support to the rhythm without overtaking it. Visually, I was pleasantly surprised how much the show had to offer. On either side of the stage was a large video monitor, which would alternate between close-ups of the performers. (It still didn't help me figure out how the hell Gab does what she does, if anything it just pushed my brain further over the edge). At the back of the stage was a translucent back-drop, used for projection. For the most part, the images they projected up were static, and would be up for a few songs at a time. But, at a couple points in the show they would project up there the same video image that was on the video monitors, except that it would be more fuzzy and grayed out. The effect was incredible, nothing cooler than normal life-size Rodrigo laying into a solo in front of gigantic 25-foot-tall Rodrigo.

Anyway, the show was every bit as enjoyable as I hoped it would be, and then some. I'll definitely try to see these guys whenever they come to town. Wait a minute, that's tomorrow. Oh yeah, here we go!!