One of the European artists with the most unique voice and personal style of the last 10 years, José Gonzalez, for the second time in Greece on Wednesday night in a concert which lasted about an hour. He mostly played material from the albums Veneer and In Our Nature. Good, first sign for the evening was the overwhelming attendance that eventually filled the Gagarin, indicating that Gonzalez,apart from the given qualities as a musician, is obviously very dear to the Greek public.
The concert started on time, when Gonzalez appeared on stage alone, with only a classical guitar, as he is used to doing at least at most of his albums, and the atmosphere immediately was heated without, however, having the sense of "off" during and after the first piece. And this, because the sound of Gonzalez, sensitive and vulnerable even to slightest sound diffused, at least initially, was more vague than perhaps suggested by the aesthetics of music.
The main problem then was that, just because of the noise of the public (although from time to time there were attempts to keep it quiet) and just because of the size of the venue, the tranquil flow of his voice and guitar that had me hooked listening over and over again the CD, some dilute stop somewhere, of course, to continue later, restoring the public within their limits. Perhaps the distance between the audience and the artist enlarged because of the distance of Gonzalez from the center of the scene after being placed right in the center, at a point where although he was visible to all but was removing the element of immediacy to our meeting. For the performance, the songs were very close, if not identical to the original, the presence highly distinctive, a few words. In 4 of the pieces, except the guitar and the voice, we heard a trumpet, which was later finally realized that it was not prerecorded, but it was played by the sound engineer from the upper floor where the console was. The most successful performance throughout the evening and the place where the world got hot was the adaptation of Jose to Teardrop by Massive Attack and the performance of Lovestain from his first album and the concert ended with a cover version of Love will tear us apart of Joy Division, which left me with a pleasant taste and the desire to see him again soon. Next time, perhaps, in a quieter area, preferably seated.