Review: Rodrigo y Gabriela at Colston Hall

They’re split by the Atlantic ocean now, with Rodrigo living in Norway and Gabriela in their native Mexico but that hasn’t stopped this guitar duo blending perfectly to create mighty tunes.

And we must be clear that it’s tunes we’re talking about, not songs, explains Rodrigo. There are no lyrics in this set until the encore (we’ll come onto that later) but that in no way detracts from their brilliance and storytelling power.

Opening the show was Rodrigo’s Norwegian pal, Øystein Greni. Joined onstage by another musician – Oystein powered his way through the show with a selection of songs (actual songs with lyrics), including ‘Wilder’ and ‘Lazy Eye’. Each song invited comparisons to a range of artists from many genres – the soothing, easy vibes of Dodgy’s latest album to the Spaghetti Western twang of Calexico, the poignancy of Sun Kil Moon to the bite of Guns’n’Roses. In fact, ‘Welcome to the Mountain’ could well have been Welcome to the Jungle’s folky cousin. Oystein ended the show with this rockier number and threw in a rock n roll jump for good measure.

Rodrigo y Gabriela entered the perfectly dressed stage and burst straight into The Soundmaker, which they admitted they’d left out of previous sets on the tour. The energy between the pair is electric. It’s sassy, sexy and spectacular.

A cover of Metallica’s Orion revealed a unique bond between the virtuoso guitar playing and a love of metal music. ‘We’re metal heads really,’ Rodrigo tells us. ‘Like some of the audience. Some are metal heads, some are not.’ He goes on to reveal they recently played several songs live with Metallica but said they wouldn’t do that here so not to alienate the non-metal heads!

Oystein joined them on stage for a rousing cover of Randy California’s Nature’s Way, with his vocals really adding another dimension to the impaccable guitar playing. Gabriela said they had considered adding more musicians to their set up but after much discussion had decided to stick to the winning formula of two accomplished guitarists playing off each other.

A poignant message lit up the stage towards the end, the words ‘Ayotzinapa somos todos’ to highlight the disappearance of 43 students in Mexico. They invited everyone to take photos and share it with the world so that these young men not be forgotten about.

The encore consisted of a shaky start to a song with lyrics, Rodrigo forgetting the words. Forgetting the words to the one song he had to remember. Perhaps that’s why they steer clear of lyrics. However, he totally redeemed himself with the tease intro for Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Otherside before veering off into a full cover of Radiohead’s Creep. Inspired.

The pair leave to a well-earned raucous applause and appreciative cheers.