Live report: José González @ Hammersmith Apollo, London 04/24/06
Most UK fans first got wind of this man via a Sony TV commercial, now González has a chance to enter their hearts with huge shows and festival appearances beckoning.
A new light show and visuals backdrop added a roundness to this show. González even mustered a long-ish set running to 70 minutes featuring his customary cover songs - Kylie, The Knife and Massive Attack - no Joy Division or Bruce Springsteen tonight.
After three songs he invited a couple of badly dressed lads on to help him out on minimal percussion, he unmasked a new song, made the crowd wait until his third stage call to hear "Heartbeats" (and for the two lads to disappear), and they all cracked up laughing at the end of a number, just managing to regain composure enough to deliver a beguiling rendition of arguably the best of the night, and some say next album-sounding song "Send someone away".
Not only is José's music organic, you get the feel from everyone around him - including this site - that the music is owned by the people. Elitist for some, but inclusive for all. Some might say bland. Some might like ketchup with their fries?
Nevertheless, a near sold out 3500 capacity Hammersmith Apollo [ed: seating capacity: 3632 / standing capacity: 5039] buoyed José González plus guests Frida H and Midaircondo into the second half of his fourth proper UK tour.
A platinum disc for "Veneer" in the UK and album sales exceeding 300K makes for a good return on very few UK shows given that high sales figure. He will elevate things further though - the next level stop is Hollywood Bowl in July.
16 mics in all, and they told. The sound was near as good as it could be - perhaps a little quiet - given the nature of this music and acoustic timbre.
Between songs, vox clips of the A Team's Mr. T were relayed into one of the mics. It made light relief from the seriousness, which inevitably becomes of anything more musically cerebral than straight edged rock and pop.
- Jason Christie
I Pity The Fool,
I'm No Fool
In the summer of 2004 I saw José González at a beachfront café in Varberg, Sweden. There were about 50 people in the audience and the atmosphere was amazing. I was not a fan then nor am I one today, but there is no denying that Mr. González is a brilliant guitar player with a beautiful voice. Last night my girlfriend took me to see him at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, a venue that holds about 5000 people [ed: see above for clarification] and initially I though that there is no way this will work. To my surprise, it did! Somehow they had managed to make it feel intimate enough for his songs not to get lost in the big space. He played pretty much every song from his record along with one new song and a Massive Attack cover (don't know them well enough to know which song it was). He did half the set solo and the other half with two friends playing bongos. According to José himself, the crew had been giving him a hard time for not talking in-between songs so he had purchased a Mr. T talking key ring to do the talking for him, which the crowd found rather amusing, myself included.
It is obvious when you watch him play that he is enjoying the wave of success he is riding on at the moment and he gets a big plus for making it feel so intimate last night. He even had a giggle attack during one of the songs and was unable to sing the remaining lyrics. The minuses were that I didn't get to hear his cover of Joy Division's "Love will tear us apart" and the fact that he played "Crosses" twice, a big no-no if you ask me.
- Per Apelqvist