Archive for the ‘al di meola’ Category
Paco de Lucia Concert Review, Austin, TX 5/2/2012
I don’t quite know how to review this show. My brain hurts yet I’m extremely relaxed because of the events of last night’s show with Paco de Lucia.
It was because if Al Di Meola that I found out about Paco…and really it was Riot<Di Meola<Paco. The album Friday Night In San Francisco with Di Meola, McLaughlin and de Lucia was my introduction to his playing.
I’ve always heard that after Segovia died, Paco pretty much was deemed the greatest living guitar player. I think that may be true.
I bought tickets for this show 14 months ago and we were 2nd row in the center section. The amazing One World Theatre put on this show and they used The Riverbend Church for the venue since it holds a few thousand people. The place was beautiful and the sound was great. With our tickets we had VIP status which basically just gave us a nice dinner before the show. All this week leading up to this show I’ve been a little giddy. Last night’s show and this weekend’s Arch/Matheos show close some gaps for me for bands to see before I die.
After the dinner and milling around the courtyard we went in and got a nice look at the venue. Really not a bad seat in the place.
The lights finally come down and Paco takes the stage on his own and plays for a while. It was beautiful. Even in his mid-60s the man showed why he has such a high status of a guitarist. He was just phenomenal. After about 10 minutes some of his band mates came out to add some vocals. The vocal stylings sounded very Arabic but were clearly in Spanish. Of course there is that whole invasion of the Moors thing and this sounded like an influence from that. It was quite interesting.
For a few numbers one of the singers did some flamenco styled dancing and it was pretty impressive. His percussionist was great as were the harmonica/keyboardist, the bassplayer and the 2nd guitarist. It was a great combination of musicians and musicianship.
Paco didn’t have a vocal mic and only spoke into his guitar mic to introduce the band. I heard rhythms tonight that I don’t think I have ever heard before. Listening to the music and watching Paco’s leg in the count was pretty mind-numbing. And of course Paco shredded in some spots, but not in the same way you’d see Yngwie or Di Meola do it. It was just f’n awesome and damned near perfect.
Cameras were not allowed during the performance but I managed to catch a shot or 2 when he came out for the encore.
The show looked to be just around 3/4 full, maybe a little less, which is a pity. He doesn’t come to the US very often and he’s not getting any younger. Many thanks to One World Theatre for putting this on!
The Courtyard
The stage before the show started
The first adios
Encore!
The final adios.
Concert Review – Al Di Meola 4/3/11
I’m the first to admit that I haven’t bought anything by Di Meola since his 1996 “…Plays Piazzolla” CD. For me, 1983’s “Scenario” was my last favorite of the “electric era” and all those before it were all great. Al is the man. He’s got it all: technique, feel, speed, originality. It wasn’t long after 1983 that he went more acoustic than electric style and really put out a lot of the world music stuff. It just wasn’t my thing. Sure it was Al playing some good stuff, but I loved that classic fusion analog stuff from the 70s and early 80s that he did.
I mentioned in another post about seeing Return To Forever a few years back and how great it was and also about missing a Di Meola show in Norfolk because he canceled the day of the show. Luckily he didn’t cancel tonight.
Tonight’s show at the One World Theatre proved once again that this is one of the greatest places to see a show. Great seating, great sound, intimate. I was fortunate to score 2 seats on the center aisle, 2nd row and we had no one sitting in front of us. Perfection. My guitarist, Doug Morrison, attended with me.
Al comes on at about 6:10PM, says hello to the crowd, cracks a joke or 2 (Is Willie still here?”) and they go right into their set, opening with a song called Fire On Babylon. He was on the acoustic for almost the entire set until they went into Midnight Tango and he strapped on his Paul Reed Smith and played electric for the end of the set and for the encore. He was great. Period. His band was awesome (standup electric bass, drums, rhythm acoustic guitar, drums, percussion, accordion) and filled with all non-Americans except for his percussionist. The real standout member was his accordion player, Fausto. I’m rather neutral on how I feel about that instrument in general, but this guy was quite incredible. The whole band was. Al put down the shred on both the acoustic and electric like only he can do it. He picks almost every note and his precision is incredible. It was quite exhilarating to be sitting 10 feet from a musician that I have respected for about 20+ years now.
Even being unfamiliar with most of the material from tonight’s show, it didn’t really matter. It was as I expected and more. I’m looking forward to his next tour already.
I grabbed a setlist from the stage and this is the what was listed as “1st Set”. There was another set to be performed at 8:30PM and I wonder if it was going to be any different.
- Fire on Babylon
- Brave New World
- Misterio
- Double Concerto
- Turquoise
- Oblivion
- Full Frontal Contrapuntal
- Capouiera
- Midnight Tango/One Night Last June
- Race With The Devil On A Spanish Highway (encore)
The Metal Files 
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