José González + Mia Doi Todd - Paradise Rock Club (Boston, MA; Mar. 13, 2008)

I can recall once explaining my reluctance to embrace Jose Gonzalez’s debut album Veneer by saying that it sounded vaguely “adult contemporary.” When I listen back on it now, and especially after seeing him live, I have to really struggle to try to imagine what in the world I was referring to. I think in some way his voice initially reminded me of James Taylor, who I don’t have any particular distaste for, but whose music I nonetheless typically find fairly disposable. I’ve previously discussed my hesitation to devote too much time to singer-songwriters here, but as my last couple of shows have indicated, it may be time for me to reevaluate my position.

I was supposed to be on Mia Doi Todd’s guestlist, but as the time for her set to begin crept up she had yet to deliver the list. To make matters worse, when it did finally arrive, my name was nowhere to be found. Several phone calls and a fair amount of groveling later, Mia was gracious enough to get me into the show personally, instantly improving this review before a note had even been played.

The music, however, would have been more than enough. Though she was understandably perturbed to have to perform amidst the constant hum of conversation coming from the bar and balcony areas of the Paradise, several times reminding the audience that “this is a quiet song” or “let your neighbor know if he or she is talking too loud,” her confident voice and sparse, intimate arrangements never sounded compromised. Having recently discovered the harmonium, Mia’s set was heavy on the mystic, drone-like compositions found on her latest album Gea, a reference to the fertile, rejuvenating character of the Earth. With the help of hand drummer Andres Renteria, she deftly displayed her other diverse talents, treating us with a captivating mix of bossa nova, classical, and traditional singer-songwriter. Easily worthy of her own headlining gig, Mia was the perfect beginning to an exceptional night of music.

When I learned that Jose Gonzalez’s show had been sold out for two weeks, I was a bit surprised. I knew he had been generating buzz for some time, and had recently been nominated for a PLUG award (under the odd category of “Americana Album of the Year"), but I’ve noticed that a lot of great shows in Boston never sell out much in advance. Gonzalez himself even seemed a bit taken aback by his popularity; speaking of playing at Fox Morning News earlier that day, he quietly admitted, “I felt like I was infiltrating the enemy.” But my neighbors gushed about him as they described his apparently breathtaking side tent performance at last years Coachella festival, and the youthful crowd jockeyed for position closest to the stage.

The audience cheered enthusiastically as Gonzalez emerged and took his seat on the raised platform set up on stage, but they immediately hushed for his performance. Opening with “Hints” from Veneer, his intricate, classical finger-picking and delicate voice held the crowd in rapt attention. As he continued to move through his live versions, the James Taylor comparisons slowly seemed less and less apt.

I think what initially turned me off from Veneer was the clean production. In the live setting--and more so on his follow up, In Our Nature--his guitar strings are allowed to buzz and his voice reveals a rawer, organic quality that feels largely absent from Veneer (hence the title perhaps?). In fact, one thing that struck me most when seeing Jose play was just how hard he strikes his strings and how much he uses the guitar as a rhythm instrument. I was expecting him to break a string at any second during his impassioned version of “Down the Line.” One of the best results of hearing songs live is when they give you a totally new perspective on the recorded versions. Though I’m still not crazy about lines like “you left a lovestain on my heart,” the fact that I can picture Gonzalez performing on a dimly lit stage and occasionally making some mistakes or having his voice crack, instead of in a staid recording studio, adds a sense of palpability that was absent for me before.

Having had the chance to see a good deal of live music lately, I can’t help but be struck by how substantially underappreciated the live setting has become. There was a time when we had to much more fully engage ourselves with music if we wished to hear it at all. The way in which a concert requires such extensive participation from the listener provides a broader palette of experience to draw upon and that fuller spectrum has repeatedly and forever changed my perception of many songs and albums. I blush a little now knowing that I applied the “adult contemporary” label to Jose Gonzalez, but I think what I really meant was that I just couldn’t connect. On Thursday, there was a visceral quality to his performance that had remained elusive to me up to that point. Though I hope he can manage to capture that rawness on his subsequent albums, I can safely say that he doesn’t belong in the company of Celine Dion and Barry Manilow. Go check out his live show and you’ll never make the same mistake that I did. 

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