Orange Whip? Orange Whip? One night only lake wazza-Palladium! Rodrigo y Gabriela and their latin and C.U.B.A review!
Possibly the best introduction to a band one can have is driving through the sparse Mohave at sunset while a friend shuffles through his iPod. The scene was framed and I have been in love with these guys ever since. When I was tipped off that RodyGab were going to play the Palladium I jumped at the chance and was first in line. I was even ahead of the ticket bots that grab up all the good seats at shows and bump you to the back of the que because "none are available" (fix your shit Ticketmaster).
It was quite interesting to see the two play close up. I am still not 100% certain but it would appear Rodrigo is playing with a pick most of the time. Gabriela has certainly one of the more unique techniques. It is very percussive (it reminds me of Kaki King), but there are clearly a number of other influences in there. Take for example the hand percussion that she plays. When she is hitting the strings it seems her own style (flamenco-esk), but when she uses her thumb and pinky to hit lower on the base it reminds me of how irish bodhrán players play. In fact there was many a night when I saw a guitar player in the pubs flip over his guitar and play the back as a bodhrán. They did a spell in ireland so its no a completely crazy theory.
They played a strong section of the show with a band backing them. This lead to a much more bela fleck style show, with extended jams and segments in the show dedicated to solos. It became evident very quickly that they had hand selected some fantastic musicians, but they had done a poor job of arranging the music. The thing that RodyGab have going for them is that they are very organic and natural. Adding the band made them very straight and ... I think my biggest issue was the keyboard player. His tone was always just the right flavor of wrong (despite playing a programmable electric keyboard). His technique felt like old people jazz and I really like jazz... Their bass player was great. He was like a Victor Wooten in training... Not quite there, but still pretty damn good. The horn players were both great, but again they needed to get a little more dirty and a little less "straight."
Eventually the got to the middle of the show which featured each of them solo, but also just the two of them which is what many had come for.
They are at their best when they are just the two of them playing off each other. They put together a sound that is full enough that they don't need a band behind them. Absolutely loved the energy that Gabriele had and the intensity of the leads that Rodrigo had. It's clear that these two are doing what they love. A lot of times you see bands and they are just so burned out. These two are going strong. If you can catch a show without cuba, I highly recommend it!
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Side Note:
At some point the drummer from White Zombie made a guest appearance. I had some concerns he was playing at the wrong gig for a while. Wait... wait... I'm not playing moderately hard rock? This is latin? Whaaa? He did eventually lock in, but it took him a bit to change gears. I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt and say it was a stage monitor issue...
