The Metal Files

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.