6 avril 2011 - José Gonzalez @ Gaité Lyrique

José Gonzàlez performing with The Göteborg String Theory

Last night Jose Gonzalez performed with the Goteborg String Theory @ one of the nicest venues I have been in Paris ! La Gaité Lyrique.

This was my 2nd time to see him in live as José ( saw him in Junip last summer in Barcelona, another great band ) so it was nice to see him play the set along with The String Theory who had the air of excellent musicians along with a very modern music conductor.

José opened the set alone for the first song, Hints, with a nice stage setting and lighting that gave even a more emotional atmosphere to his voice and guitar playing.

There wasn’t a sound in the room except him as everyone was listening in silence.

Then the 20 musicians of The Goteborg String Theory placed themselves on stage with a haunting and powerful impact, the venue was perfect for this type of classical music and José’s voice.

One thing you can say about José Gonzalez is when you go to one of his shows you get totally lost in time you think you are just there listening for 20mins and next he says it’s the last song and you feel frustrated the time has gone by so fast.

Half way through the set totally unexpected the sound cut and it took a few minutes to come back on, hence the upside José was playing with The String Theory who kept playing under the guidance of the conductor and even José himself sat on the floor of the stage turned to the musicians as if he was the one at a gig.

As anyone who knows the albums of José he plays 3 cover songs, the most impressive cover is the Kylie Minogue song Put Your Hand On Your Heart, which is off her first album. José must have listened to this when he was young way back in the 80’s hahaha, but all the same it’s a really nice version in his style. Also his other 2 cover songs Massive Attack, Teardrop and Swedish Band The Knife song, Heartbeats. But the magic about José is no matter what cover he would play it would make you believe it’s a José song.

I finish by saying at the end of the set people were going crazy for more and all the people seated stood up in admiration of having just seen something touching.