Rodrigo y Gabriela's mad shredding wows the Pantages
Categories: Concert Review
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| Ward Rubrecht |
Opening the show was Rocco DeLuca, who stood alone onstage with a shifting lineup of resonator guitars. His music was metallic and haunting; his singing stuck to the falsetto as he keened along with the harmonization. It wasn't as catchy or bombastic as what was to follow, but it was an apt opener for a pair of guitar virtuosos.
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| Ward Rubrecht |
As the intermission drew to a close, the lights went blue and a huge 11:11 flashed on the back screen (the title of RyG's newest album). With no introduction patter, the pair strode out, grabbed their guitars, and launched into their first number. Within the first three songs, they had most of the audience out of their seats bouncing along to their syncopated rhythms.
For most of the show, the pair kept rolling, moving from one tune to the next with little pause; periodically one of the pair would leave the stage entirely, allowing the other to take the spotlight. For Gabriela Quintero, this allowed her to highlight her hand-drumming skills, in which she rapidly switched between rapping her knuckles and fingers across the body of her guitar and strumming, playing both rhythm and melody at the same time.
When Rodrigo Sanchez had the stage to himself, he organized the audience into his percussion section, breaking the crowd into three segments of alternating clapped rhythms while he concentrated on some incredibly impressive melodic solo work. When the pair reunited, they launched into a syncopated cover of Stairway to Heaven, Quintero hunched over her instrument in extreme concentration, Sanchez rocking out in a full metal stance.
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| Ward Rubrecht |
By the time the pair entered the home stretch, they were playing nothing but rambunctious, thrashing tunes while the audience on the whole remained politely in their seats. Sanchez took a break and remarked on how their Minneapolis show at First Ave had had a bit different atmosphere than the Pantages; the pair's been playing a lot of theater shows and he was clearly a bit bemused by the audiences' restraint. He invited the audience to "go fuckin' crazy," and the younger members (some clearly still in highschool) complied, swarming the aisles and leaning over the edge of the stage.
When the pair finished, the audience was thoroughly sated, but Sanchez and Quintero hung out for a few minutes, shaking hands and flashing rock horns at their most enthusiastic fans.
When the pair finished, the audience was thoroughly sated, but Sanchez and Quintero hung out for a few minutes, shaking hands and flashing rock horns at their most enthusiastic fans.
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