Jose Gonzalez, I think I love you.

FINALLY!

Finally it came to pass..the night that Jose and I crossed hearts and souls. Oh, how I’ve waited for the smooth swedishness to drift into my life in full bloom. After missing out on seeing the beloved on 2 occasions in the past 18 months, I was determined to track him down if it was the last thing I did.
Skite I will, but I actually discovered Jose long before there were any bouncing balls on San Francisco streets.
Last night at The Factory Theatre, Mr Gonzalez put on a simply perfect show. The audience sat in wonder and complete silence as Jose made love to them with a voice like dripping honey. Cheese factor on the poetry of my words, but he simply sounds that divine. With just an acoustic guitar and the tap of his foot, he filled the entire theatre with beautiful sounds and delighted us with songs off the new album.

I often find when I see an act who is essentially promoting their upcoming album, it can often be an almost let down, simply because you’ve never heard the songs before. However, this show wasn’t like that, as everything he performed seemed so familiar but with a new intensity and a little more seriousness to the weight of the themes in the songs.

I ALMOST felt I was going to walk away heartbroken as he only had “2 more songs” and Heartbeats was still nowhere to be heard. I adore everything on Veneer and was loving the new stuff, but if I hadn’t heard my Heartbeats, the song that made me fall in love with this man, I would have had to leave the theatre dragging my heart in a box behind me. He left the stage after performing Teardrop and Hand on Your Heart, which if you didn’t know anything much about Kylie Minogue, you would have had no clue was born out of a cheesy 80’s pop song. I have never seen Massive Attack perform Teardrop live, but Jose’ version was so powerful I can’t imagine anyone doing a better job.

Much to my relief, he came back out after getting lost behind the curtain, claiming he was “stumbling around in the dark”, to perform an instrumental, followed by the most gorgeous rendition of Heartbeats which actually sent gasps through the crowd and finishing up with Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart.

I was a very happy camper leaving the theatre and am now telling you all to go see him when he returns for the Falls Festival in December.

A Reminder’s review

Jose Gonzales on myspace