josé gonzález, barbican theatre

José @ Barbican

A couple of months ago, I saw that José González was playing at the Barbican.  I’m a member, so I’m always keeping my eye out for interesting stuff – especially as my mate moved there last summer!

I love José González’ voice, so, I thought I’d check the tickets out and see if my mate fancied going…but when I checked there were like 5 seats left and they were all single seats, so I thought ‘Bugger it!’ and just got a seat for myself (selfish bitch, I know!).

It turned out that my mate had looked too, but they were all sold out by that point, and so he felt hard done by.  And I felt rather guilty.  But oh my god, I am SO glad that I was selfish and did get myself a ticket as it was fantastic!

Usually it’s just him with his guitar, but this tour is with a special arrangement with a 16 piece orchestra – The Gothenburg String Theory (because he’s Swedish….you could tell by the name, couldn’t you?)  His voice is amazing – I’ve always thought that it’s beautiful…really ‘pure’ is the only way I’ve ever been able to describe it.

You might recognise this

There were a couple of points during the concert that I realised I was leaking – I was actually moved to tears by the music!  And I haven’t actually been to a concert where there has been a standing ovation during the concert – but it was the best rendition of Teardrops I have ever heard (and I have seen Massive Attack live – and they were shit).  But this was so gorgeous and haunting that it moved the audience to their feet and a 5 minute applause during the main gig!

Oh yes, and there was an empty seat directly in front of me all the way through – how bloody annoying?

I have been looking for a good video of him with the orchestra, but they’re all done from the live concerts and you really lose the sense of drama when you’re not watching it live.  This one at least has brilliant sound, but is with a reduced orchestra.  I still love it though.