Concert Review: Jose Gonzalez

June 26th, 2008: St. Matthew's Church, Halifax
Fellow Conecert Goer: Julia Churchill
Headlining: Jose Gonzalez
Supporting: Rebekah Higgs

I hadn't attended a concert for quite a while, and quite frankly I wanted to go to a show with a decent band. I noticed in Exclaim (an excellent and free music magazine) that Jose Gonzalez was in town. Now I have never listened to him before, so I did a little myspace hopping. Turns out that I have seen some of his videos on pitchfork.tv (and excellent and free music website). I was googling Jose Gonzalez Halifax St. Matthew's Church looking for prices for the show. But I couldn't find them anywhere! But what I did find was a few contests on some blogs that were giving away passes to the show. So I entered the draw that was ending in an hour, and I won passes! (Saving almost $40 for 2 tix I might add).

So I went to the show with Julia, who I knew would enjoy Jose, but also knew that she would be slightly skeptical of going to a concert for somebody that she had never heard. Luckily she enjoyed the show as did I. Rebekah Higgs opened up the show. I must say I'm not the biggest fan of her music, but I do respect the fact that she tries to experiment with different sounds (loved seeing the Korg Kaoss pad, or something similar to the one Radiohead uses during Everything In It's Right Place).
Then Jose Gonzalez played. The whole time he sat in a chair working the magic of his fingers on the guitar with a great set. It was relaxing, but not relaxing in the sense of poppy Jack Johnson music. More of a relaxing sound where you are outside in nature and enjoying it, but know there is still that dark cloud over your life. Whenever he stopped playing a song there would be a deafening round of applause rising through the church followed by an almost awkward silence that if you even breathed the place would fall apart. It was a good intimate show, and just the right length. It was pretty stuffy, and the seats weren't that comfortable, but all in all it was a great show.