If you were one of the 3000 attendees at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn on the evening of June 27th count yourself among the lucky ones. Rodrigo y Gabriela treated a theater full of fans to a 90-minute guitar fireworks show that would make the Macy’s 4th of July fireworks display envious. They are touring to support their new album In Between Thoughts…A New World, and although they focused on that release, they played a nice mix of old and yet-to-be-released songs as well. It is almost unthinkable that in this day and age this show could even happen — a headliner comprised of two guitarists playing instrumentals to a nearly sold-out show in one of the most beautiful theaters in New York City with a young-ish audience that was hanging on every note.
For those unfamiliar, the Mexican guitar duo has been playing together for 20 years. It is very hard to define their style as it is a blend of traditional Mexican acoustic guitar with alternative rock and ample doses of heavy metal. You can hear all these influences in many of their songs, but “True Nature” and “The Eye That Catches The Dream” will give you a good feel.
After a quiet, ballad-laden folk set from Ondara and a short set break, the lights dimmed at 8:24 and the music was cranked up to the song “The Pot” by Tool – not your normal beginning for a (usually) acoustic guitar duo. Then after the entire six-minute song finished Rodrigo Y Gabriela appeared behind their own screen of moving lights that felt a little bit like a giant shower curtain and launched into their opener, “Astrum In Corpore”. One couldn’t make out all of the detail but could see enough of each performer to see each dressed in white jeans, white shirts, and black boots, with Gabriela on acoustic guitar and Rodrigo on electric guitar.
After the first song, they stepped out from behind the light curtain onto a simple stage set with a low three-tiered pyramid comprised of stage risers. Throughout the evening they played on all levels of that set with Gabriela’s right hand moving with jaw-dropping speed and precision across the strings and on the body of her acoustic guitar to create the percussive elements of the song, while her left hand helped out with the bass and melody of the songs — listen to the title track “In Between Thoughts … A New World” if you want to hear how hard that right hand was working. With Gabriela holding almost the entire back end, and some of the front, of each composition, Rodrigo mostly stayed on electric guitar (although he played some acoustic and lap steel too) and was able to both fill out the melody and focus on the solos and other parts that demanded more sonic space between the notes.
They played two unreleased tunes which both stood out. “Simburgh” started slow and smolderingly building into an extended crescendo of carefully curated notes with Rodrigo moving to lap steel before the music cooled back down to a low simmer. “Monster” was another new tune that was packed with emotion and guitar pyrotechnics that almost had this reviewer looking around to see where the monster really was in the room. After about an hour and 15 minutes, they took a two-minute break and Gabriela came back out alone to play a beautiful solo piece that demonstrated she could handle both parts with ease. For the next three songs, the audience stayed on their feet clapping and reflecting the band’s energy back at them. For the final song, Gabriela invited the audience to move up to the front, and a dance party in the aisles broke out.
It is hard to put into words how powerful this performance was. Listening to their music will get you closer, but if you want the full experience, you will have to see Rodrigo y Gabriela live.
