I saw José González at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, April 23rd, and it was an interesting show that required some patience, but grew on me overall. I knew it was going to be low-energy given his style, and although there were more underwhelming moments than I thought there would be, there were also moments of real delight. His guitar playing is effortlessly impressive, and overall he is a true delicacy as an artist and performer.
Fan Context
All I knew of Jose Gonzalez going into the show were the hits: “Heartbeats,” “Stay Alive,” and “Step Outside.” I had heard “Line of Fire” in a movie or TV show too, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t know it was by him. So although I only knew a handful of his songs, I think my relationship with his music is a little more than that because of the power of his songs. For example, Heartbeats is not a song that I can just listen to at any time. I seriously would turn it off or change it if it were to come on a shuffle or playlist and I wasn’t in the right mood for it. It’s just so emotional and creates such a nostalgic feeling that if you aren’t ready to feel that, it’s almost intrusive. Every song applies to a mood, it all depends, but I think Heartbeats rings especially true to that feeling of a song that can’t just be placed on a playlist for the risk of it coming up and disrupting your mind in a way you aren’t comfortable with. You are playing that song for a reason, to cater to a distinct feeling(s). It’s an amazing thing. I feel similarly about Stay Alive, but not to the same level. Anyways, I say this all to express that although I only got lightly into Gonzalez’s work, the songs that I knew were so powerful that his name as an artist was one that I would never forget, and I likely never will. So when I saw his name up on The 9:30 Club’s calendar, I saw this as a good opportunity to hear more of his music in its most genuine form.
The Show
Gonzalez came on at 9:11, walking to a lone chair on a slightly raised part of the stage, with two acoustic guitars there waiting for him. He sat and towards the end of the welcoming applause he said, “Hell-OH!” in a calmly enthusiastic tone. “Good to see everyone.”
He opened with “Etyd,” which was a pretty captivating opener as I think back on it, off the new album too. The guitar sound is a little scary, mysterious if you will, but I feel that’s accurate to many of his songs.
He said, “Hello DC!” then played “Down the Line,” which had a little more energy to it. This is when I noticed the loop pedal he had, and he had something up there that was highly amplifying the embellishments in this song too, making the acoustic much louder. I’m not sure what it was, but whoever knows musical equipment better than I do, please weigh in.
I will say, it was hard to understand him throughout the show. I know that’s just his sound, it’s distorted in some way and he’s a quiet singer. And it’s true of many bands/artists, especially if you don’t know them well coming in, that they’re harder to comprehend live. While the sound is greater, the understanding of words usually isn’t. For example, I could have sworn he was saying, “Don’t think I’m insecure” during the part in which he says, “Don’t let the darkness eat you up.” But it’s not essential to understand what a singer is saying, but more so how much their sound satisfies you. At least that’s how I see it.
Before the next song he did some quick tuning, which was cool to watch because he must be so damn good at tuning his guitar by ear at this point in his career, given that so many of his songs are in non-traditional tuning. “Super unique tuning” would be a more accurate way to put it. He twisted the knobs and moved up and down the neck so quickly. I was thinking before he came on – the sound guy for Jose Gonzalez must have a particularly important job in comparison to others. He was out on stage for 15-20 minutes in between sets tuning both guitars if I remember correctly.
He played a song in Spanish next that I’m pretty sure was “Ay Querida” based on setlistfm. Crazy fast fingerpicking in this song that he made look so easy. It’s just not. Another scary-sounding song, as if he’s scoring a movie scene in which something terrible is happening. Of course, the translation is “Oh dear.” That makes sense. Another song off the new album early on in the set, to note.
He played “Every Age” next, then addressed the crowd again, saying something along the lines of, “Thank you so much for having us… this is our third show together with Abby Sage… it’s great to be back at The 9:30 club… it’s my tradition now… We’re gonna play some songs from the new album and some old ones… mix it up a bit… This one’s called ‘Stories we Build, Stories we Tell.’”
A slower song, but a really strong one lyrically. I noted here that it was a pretty underwhelming show so far. I was paying attention, but the songs weren’t exactly grabbing my attention. Saying it’s “boring” feels so disrespectful because it’s just not true, because what he’s doing on stage is such a stunning work of art. I felt like I was there out of respect for him especially as a guitarist, but also just as an artist overall, regardless of how drawn into his music I might have been. So to use a common term meaning no disrespect, I felt “bored” through this first stretch of songs, although what he was doing up there was objectively not boring – it just didn’t satisfy my ears personally. And, to any band/artist, that shouldn’t matter. They play for no one. I’m just trying to withhold my honesty here.
“Losing Game” was next, and this was a really cool song. All of his songs are incredibly unique on guitar, but this one was as if he was playing guitar and bass at the same time. Really active with his right hand, a more rapid pace to it too. He said at the end, “That song is about the tragedy of the commons,” if I heard him correctly. Interesting.
He then said, “This next song is in Swedish,” and played U – Rawls slöja. It’s amazing that he speaks Swedish so well, really beautifully. I didn’t know that about him, and I’m sitting here just realizing that he actually is Swedish. I had no clue. A tri-lingual man with the last name “Gonzalez” who is Swedish-born. Fascinating. I am always enamored with people who speak multiple languages… Europeans seem to value that so much more than Americans.
He mentioned a Helen Fisher quote before the next song, saying, “The Anthropologist Helen Fisher once said, ‘People around the world pine for love, live for love, kill for love, and die for love.’” Then finished his point by saying something along the lines of, “This evolutional system is sad when it gets hijacked by fictional figures…” then let his point marinade with a pause and stated the name of the song, “Killing for Love,” and started playing. If you were there, please check me on this quote. I think it’s important to get right and I think I have it correct, but am not positive.
While he played Killing for Love, I noted that there seems to be deep meaning to most of his songs. Now there’s meaning to every song, I realize that, but Gonzalez’s songs seem to be about something truly serious more so than others. Something serious about life overall. I think he’s trying to make a point in a lot of his songs, and it’s not always necessarily about him, but about what he observes in the world. Not just in other people close to him or in his life, but in the world around him. I guess that’s what I mean by saying his songs go deeper into meaning. I don’t know his music well enough to feel very confident about this observation, but it’s what I think so far.
He played a longer stretch of just instrumental at the end of the song, which was really cool, and it got a big applause at the end of it. It sounded a little Hermanos Guttierez-ish, or I probably should say that Hermanos Gutierrez sounds like Jose Gonzalez, as I’m sure he is an influence of theirs. And speaking on the audience, I applaud their behavior. For the most part everyone was silent while Gonzalez played, and that’s really essential during shows like this with just one performer. And for such calm music, it was really cool to hear everyone roar with applause at the end of mostly sublime songs. Really cool juxtaposition.
He quickly went into “Stay Alive,” and it was really cool to see him play it live without the backing instrumental. He did some effect with his microphone to dub his voice at some point, I think? There was definitely something there making it sound like there were two voices. His voice was also really beautiful here, standing out to me more so than any other song so far, but of course I’m biased because I really like this one. I also love the “To feel your heart as it’s keeping time,” lyric. It’s cool, you can hear a song hundreds of times, but some things stand out more when you hear it just one time live. Music, man.
He played another song in Spanish that I believe to be “El Invento,” and it was really beautiful. This was my favorite of his non-English songs.
There was a really powerful song next that looks to be called “Teardrop” and is a cover of Massive Attack. I thought it was such a special sound coming from his guitar. He got a big applause after this, too, and said, “Thank you! A good vibe today.”
He took a second to explain that “Tjomme” (pronounced “Cho-muh”) means “dude” in Swedish. And he made some joke about “Tjomme doomsday dudes… There are too many of them.” Something like that. It got a laugh.
Tjomme went over well, a bit more of an upbeat song, more of a fun one for him. I wrote here that there’s just almost nothing simple about the way he plays guitar. Complex seems to just be the default for him. It’s hardly fathomable to the common man. And when over done, that can really be unattractive in my mind. But he’s not over done at all. Just really really good.
He said, “Duuuude, duuude” after the song ended to some more laughs. Then he gave a shoutout to three members of his crew very smoothly, as if in song. He’s such a smooth guy. He’s very good at raising the enthusiasm in his voice, while not necessarily raising the octave level.
He played “For Every Dusk” next, and I believe he cut it short and played straight into “Crosses,” which was cool. It was clearly an intentional transition, but I’m now noticing that For Every Dusk is six minutes long, and he definitely didn’t play that song for that long. It was no more than two to three minutes, then without stopping he played straight into Crosses. Very cool transition as the intro in Crosses is really attention-grabbing.
Hearing Crosses made me think about how good he is at writing climactic songs. Ones that are perfect for dramatic montages in movies. And as I was thinking this I remembered that he soundtracked “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” Makes sense! He evokes so much emotion, and his sound has a way of making you panic, worry, worry about what’s to come. It’s really interesting his knack for doing that. I don’t know if it’s on purpose or not, I’d love to ask him.
He played Heartbeats next and that was worth the price of admission. I’m exaggerating, but not really. The song is so beautiful. I could have watched/listened to him play it for 20 minutes. It was near perfect live. I loved it.
And it is crazy to me that Heartbeats is a cover! I NEVER knew that! I only realized because someone noted that it was a cover when listing the song on setlistfm. I CANNOT believe that. It’s really rocking my world. I’m usually pretty good at discovering that stuff, but damn, I missed on that one. It takes away a small portion of the specialness of the song to know that Gonzalez didn’t write it, but not much. It really shouldn’t at all, I’m just so taken aback to know that it’s original form is that of a techno-pop song by The Knife. I guess it’s even more a credit to Gonzalez’s creativity – how he pulled such a stunning sound out of that song in his own version is incredible. Also, credit to The Knife for writing something so special.
After this, he mentioned his giving pledge, as he had a member of his crew in the back of the venue to talk to about donations. He mentioned how he took the giving pledge in 2017, and it’s important to note that they’re more impactful than the average charities. “Give a little, make a big impact” basically was the message. A nice thing.
He said that he had two more songs to close out the set and that they were the last two songs on the new album. He started with the title track, “Against the Dying of the Light,” and this was my favorite song of the set (of the ones I didn’t already know). I really liked it. It had a really easy rhythm to it and was very uplifting. He cursed at the end of it! I didn’t know he had that in him. He just seems like such a gentle, delightful guy. And I love that lyric, “Celebrate the fucking fact that we’re alive.” And rebelling “against the dying of the light” is really thought-provoking.
It’s funny, I could have sworn “The Dying of the Light” was the name of something Bruce Springsteen did, so I thought just adding “Against” was kind of a silly name for an album because of that. But I realized it was just a Noel Gallagher song that I knew. Silly me. So on second thought, “Against the Dying of the Light” is a great album name. And it also has a great cover. But doesn’t it sound Springteen-ish? Maybe I’m just thinking of “Blinded by the Light,” but that’s not what came to my mind right away.
Anyway, right after Against the Dying of the Light ended, the curtain providing the backdrop to the stage with the album cover on it dropped abruptly. It was cool. Got some “oohs” and “aahs” from the crowd. What was behind it was another version of the album art, with a big scissor to the right side that looked to be cutting through a cloud. The scissor’s right handle had a bird’s wing on it too. Interesting. It was just cool timing overall, as Gonzalez strummed the first note of “A Perfect Storm” as the curtain fell and kept playing, unbothered. I’ve never seen anything like that at a show.
He went off stage briefly and came back out about a minute later, playing “A line of Fire,” “You and We,” “Joy,” and “Pajarito.” Pajarito was in Spanish, it had a lovely picking pattern, very bright song. He whistled during it. All the other songs went over well, too. He got through them all pretty quickly. I’m not sure if they are short songs as originally recorded, but he played them all in under three minutes it seemed.
Before the last song, he gave another genuine thank you to the crowd, as if saying, “Okay this time I’m serious, this is the last song,” as artists tend to do. He said, “This is my last song… and feel free to sing along.” It was “Blackbird.” And I cannot BELIEVE that it’s a cover!
Just kidding. I know that it’s by the Beatles.
And it was great! I’m normally against ending your set with a cover, but I give some leeway to bands/artists that have so much of their own music. I still think you should close with your own song, but who cares what I think. This was a really cool moment, as most everyone did sing along. And during the whistling part, everyone started clapping, and Gonzalez said, “No clapping, only birds,” as he continued to play. Then everyone started whistling pretty loudly and aggressively, and he goes, “Calm birds. Calm birds.” It was funny, it was like all the people in the audience were like his music students, and he was a teacher. He even slightly stumbled on a guitar part and gave a chuckle, just showing how loose he was. He really seemed to be having fun, and again, he just seems like a delightful guy. I mean, how could it not be fun to be that effortlessly good at what you do? Although I’m sure to him, it’s probably not “effortless.” He just makes it look that way.
He ended at 10:30.
So go see Jose Gonzalez. His music is certainly for a specific taste and a specific mood, but it’s worthy of your time regardless. He really grew on me as the performance went on, too. The second half of the show drew me in much more than the first half.
Like I said, he’s a true delicacy. He might not totally satisfy you, but neither does eating caviar. But if someone offers you a rare garnish that you know has such universally convincing flavor, you’re gonna have some, right? That’s how I see it. Jose Gonzalez didn’t quite fill my musical hunger, but he gave me a taste of something I’m not gonna get at every show. He is a special songwriter, guitarist, performer, and artist, his art is worth witnessing live.
If you were at the show or have seen Jose Gonzalez on this tour or any others in the past, please add your perspective in the comments. Tell me I’m dead wrong, tell me I’m right, tell me I’m slightly off, tell me something about Jose Gonzalez and I’ll be happy.
*Notes on the opener*
I knew Abby Sage because of “Backwards Directions.” It’s a highly-impactful song for me, I love the lyrics. And after discovering that song, I attempted to go deeper into her discography and just wasn’t drawn in. But sometimes that happens, and you are much more likely to be compelled by someone’s music after seeing them live. So when I saw she was opening for Jose Gonzalez, I thought that was perfect. However, my original taste on her remained true, unfortunately.
I didn’t like her voice live very much. It was objectively beautiful, but a little creepy and it seemed condensed. Like maybe she had more in there if she opened up, but it seemed like her voice wasn’t super versatile? I can’t quite put my finger on it, but my best comparison is that she’s like a more exaggerated Hope Sandoval from Mazzy Starr. And I think Hope Sandoval’s great! So something about Sage is just enough off for me to not be a fan of her voice. Again, objectively she’s a wonderful singer. And she’s a great talent, I’m not here to shit on any artist. It’s just not in my taste and I won’t lie about that.
It was just her and one guitarist on stage. They both were seated. Sage switched between playing guitar and bass. There was one interesting story she told about going up to Canada, – where she’s from – to a cabin with a goal of writing an album, but “instead I came back with this instrumental!” And then she played that instrumental with her guitarist, and it was my favorite song of her set (although I missed a couple). She said, “I put that song in the set for myself,” with a smile. Almost as if she thinks people don’t find it to be very good, but she personally likes it. But I thought it was really cool! She should play it with more pride, I guess.
Anyways, she also seemed to be comfortable in her own skin, but a little awkward with the crowd at the same time. For example at the end, she said something like, “This is our final song… it’s called ‘Backwards Directions’ … I’ve played it here before, but I don’t remember where… but I like playing here!” Then paused and quickly said with a smile, something like, “But yeah this is backwards directions thank you so much whatever.” Shaking her head as if she didn’t really know what to say. She wasn’t rude or offputting, not at all, but just a little awkward with her presence on stage.
I also thought the guitar sound in a lot of her songs was really deep and faded. It’s a really cool effect, but was too loud at times I thought. Especially in the beginning of Backwards Directions. The sound in some songs was similar to a low-fi sound, I thought.
To cut her some slack, it’s gotta be hard being an opener for a big name like Jose Gonzalez. She talked about how she’s such a fan of his and that it’s surreal getting to tour with him. It was only the third stop on this tour, so I’m sure she’ll come into her own a bit more as it goes on. And maybe this is just her being herself, and it’s not in my taste. And that’s okay too. If you were there or have seen/are going to see her, let me know what you thought of her.
She got off stage at 8:40.
*Some notes on the venue*
The 9:30 Club is my favorite venue in D.C., but I will say, I bought a beer last night and it was $13.55. I don’t always remember it being that expensive, and that is dangerously close to stadium pricing. It was an IPA, but still, I don’t like that.
Other than that, The 9:30 Club is awesome. Read more about it here.
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