Rodrigo y Gabriela w/ Ryan Sheridan
Showbox SoDo, Seattle, WA
05.24.17
The soundboard at the Showbox Sodo is bigger than my couch. There’s a lighting console out of sight to the right of the stage, just as enormous. Every show, expert technicians sit at the helm to create an epic concert experience out of whoever takes the stage. Yet, for all this scale and notoriety, only four people stood on that stage in Seattle for this show: Singer-songwriter opener Ryan Sheridan with his drummer, Ronan Nolan, and headliners Rodrigo Sánchez and Gabriela Quintero of Rodrigo y Gabriela.
None of us knew who Dublin native Ryan Sheridan was, but he posted on Instagram earlier in the week that he was very excited to come to the US with Rodrigo y Gabriela. Ten seconds in, it was clear why Sheridan had been chosen as the opener. Feverish rhythm guitar and a velvety, gritty voice paired with Nolan’s phenomenal drumming engulfed the crowd in a perfect medley of crystalline treble and a booming low end.
Sheridan played his guitar like a runner’s high and sang with great control. A drum and guitar break ripped into the third song of his set with crash cymbals and the kind of rapid-fire guitar strumming we came to see. Sheridan bent at half mast, strumming like it was easy, shaking his head back and forth with the smile of a boy on a beach flying a kite on perfect, frigid wind. Nolan’s addition was a flawless counter. His fills were sparse and tasteful, with a visceral heartbeat that made Sheridan’s songs even more human. Nolan played with his whole body. In the third chorus of a rising action ballad, Nolan’s mouth opened in a silent scream, mouthing Sheridan’s pleading, “We both know we’re getting closer. Walk with me, ‘cause we’ve been running too long. Can you talk with me? We’ve been screaming love in the skies.”
Apart from his technical prowess and fantastic rapport with his drummer, Sheridan’s voice had everybody swooning: a gravelly, sweet bari-tenor as he opened his heart to the crowd, “It’s a sad refraction of a time we had; you can call my name, and you will see when I turn my back.” / Your hand it reaches out for mine, two lost souls finally one.” We all agreed half an hour was too short a time to spend with our new favorite Dubliner. Sheridan would not be out of place busking on a sidewalk or in a bar but fit inside the 1,100-capacity venue like a hand in its favorite glove.
As we waited for our headliners, the floor in front of the stage flooded with fans. The stage lights dimmed from blue to black, then flashed red. A tiny pinprick of light from offstage left gave away Rodrigo’s presence: a fitting spoiler for a performer who would not be ignored for the rest of the night. When the background music dropped, Rodrigo was the first on stage, prancing out like a man with a secret he can’t wait to show you. Gabriela followed, moving like something solid, or something you might miss if you don’t sit very, very still and pay close attention. But hers was the name the crowd screamed.
The two turned to face each other, sparking incredible friction like two negative ends of a magnet. A charge built between them as their song built to a dizzying crescendo. Gabriela played coolly, like the wind. Her strumming hand was a blur, like a bird frantically thrashing over singing strings. Rodrigo busted out some funky effects for the third song, which featured some tremolo and wobbly verb while Gabriela stayed consistent in white-hot strumming and guitar-smacking percussion you could feel in your chest. When Rodrigo took over for a percussion solo, Gabriela lit up with a soft smile.
Their dialogue between songs was snarky and sincere. Rodrigo took a couple digs at the label that were not so tongue-in-cheek, while Gabriela, in turn, made the crowd laugh at Rodrigo’s expense. Rodrigo leaped, catlike, across the stage. Where before it seemed like the two were orbiting each other, it became more evident that their dynamic is such that Rodrigo catches Gabriela’s wind and soars off her gravity like a cliff jumper into a black hole. They both moved with rhythm. He perched at times on stage right, while other times joining Gabriela center stage, one leg up on a monitor.
Near the end of their set, the band invited audience members to join them onstage, at which point the set ripped into a high-octane explosion of frenzied dance, a nod to the duo’s early metal-head influence. The entire night was captivating. We filtered out through the metal detectors afterward, sighing with satisfaction. The opener and headliner worked together with perfect symmetry, bringing an intimacy to the room you more often find in the open guitar cases of sidewalk buskers than on huge stages.
Review by Wonder Wood
Photos by Phillip Johnson
Rodrigo y Gabriela
Ryan Sheridan
