I love early shows. It feels like two nights in one. The night started at 7:30 with Cass Mccombs. I had never heard anything going in to the show, but I have been converted. The two and three part harmonies evoke that good old folky feeling of days gone by (someone else's days mind you). Mccombs lyrics are really great too. A night of heartbreak lay ahead.Sorry to those people who were talking throughout the entire set. You missed a great show. In my opinion, it was a perfect pairing, Gonzalez/Mccombs. Evidently the feeling was not shared by 3/4 of the crowd. They had more important things to do. Like talk about the movie/video/album/project they are working on. "It's not totally done, but like, it's getting there."
Jose Gonzalez, is one of those artists that make you wish you'd picked up a guitar when you were younger. And if you play the guitar already, he makes you wish you could sing. If you do both of those things already he makes you wish you could do both of those things better. Much better than you actually do. If not for the self satisfaction, than for the simple reason that every woman near you will do anything for you to sing to her. I looked around and every woman's pupils were dilated. Either they were all tripping on mushrooms or they were in love.
Gonzalez ripped through his older songs at nearly twice the speed they should be played (he did this at his Trinity St. Paul church show a few years back. Presumably because he's probably played the songs 10 000 times, due to the fact that he caught on a little late outside of his native Sweden.) But the crowd enjoyed them anyway he was willing to serve them. He ended the night by breathing new life into Joy Division's classic "Love will tear us apart". The purists may not appreciate it, but I did.
Here is an old ad featuring Jose Gonzalez' cover of The Knife's "Heartbeats". Great song...and dare I say it, a great ad.
