José González - 2006 June 15 Amoeba Music, Hollywood, CA
01: Deadweight on Velveteen 02: Slow Moves 03: All You Deliver 04: Stay in the Shade 05: Lovestain 06: Heartbeats 07: Crosses 08: Hints
José González might well be one of the hardest working artists on the tour circuit today. Just this year he's been in Britain, Iceland, the US, Belgium, France, Italy and ... well, you get the picture. I had the chance to catch his in-store performance at Amoeba Music in Hollywood, the day before his performance at the El Rey Theatre with Juana Molina.
Like many of his gigs this year (and indeed, since 2004), the tracks are exclusively from Veneer and are executed with the quiet deftness characteristic of the album. The 25 minute performance was flawless and well received by the audience of 50 or so. Just the same, while González is a magnificent guitarist and songwriter, seeing him perform live somehow detracted from his allure for me.
A friend recently blogged on Charles H. Spurgeon's observation that "Everything's wonderful until it becomes familiar." Perhaps that's the explanation for why I forwent his show the next night at the El Rey even though I had tickets. But, hey, just because I was disillusioned doesn't mean you will be.
Download the gig:
mp3 format
lossless shn format at Dimeadozen (for trading / seeding)
Buy José González music: iTunes Amazon
Note: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 License.
My Trusted MOGs
you know, here's the thing about live performances, you go because either you've never seen the person/band live before or because they bring something very magical/different to their songs. i'm a big fan of jose and i really enjoyed seeing him at Amoeba but i can't say he's the most dynamic performer i've seen live. his playing was spot on but really it was like listening to the album, which i can do in my car, at home etc. thanks for sending the show btw, i'm really enjoying it.
My Trusted MOGs
Thanks for the photo of you and José from the gig, pinkfish!
My Trusted MOGs
Bastinado on Dimeadozen kindly made a CD cover and tray liner for this show. Thank you!