Jose Gonzalez Concert Review

The Lonely Swedish

You may not have heard of Jose Gonzalez, and if you haven’t, your assumptions about him would probably be wrong. The Swedish singer/songwriter (born to Argentinean parents) came to Chicago on October 15th, crooning his exotic Nick Drake/Paul Simon influenced solo acoustic songs to a packed Lakeshore Theater.

His haunting songs were helped out significantly by the small size of the 342 seat Lakeshore Theater, creating at times the intimacy of a high school talent show. The place was so quiet that his foot taps could be heard vividly. Gonzalez sat center stage, bearded and wearing a plaid shirt giving off a Bob Dylan Nashville Skyline vibe, with his lone acoustic guitar rolling through twelve songs in 45 minutes, mostly from his 2005 release Veneer with the odd Kylie Minogue cover (“Hand on My Heart”) thrown in for fun. Gonzalez has been no stranger to Chicago, this being his third time since the summer playing here after he was the surprise of the Intonation Music Fest. He appeared here last month opening and playing alongside Zero 7, where he is featured on their latest release. This was his first time headlining, and at times his inexperience with the role of the headliner showed.

Gonzalez took little time and jumped right into his soft and sometimes gorgeous music, as he breezed though his set. He seemed almost robotic with the solemn and unflinching expression he gave throughout the show. He barely acknowledged the audience, often playing with his eyes half closed and hardly any banter in between songs besides a “thank you” here and there. The very personal setting was perfect for Gonzalez to make a connection with the audience but he showed some reluctance to speak with his accented and sometimes hard to understand voice. He didn’t seem nervous, in fact, he seemed very confident on stage, but he never appeared to be fully invested in his performance. He began to countdown the number of songs he had left to play at five, giving an update at two, bringing awkward laughter from the crowd. The only time that Gonzalez broke from his shell was when a fan was shouting a request for “Save Your Day,” and he replied flatly with a no, and told a story about how in Sweden the have a saying, “You have to be hard to the soft people,” drawing an equal number of laughs and confused looks from the crowd of mostly college students.

However, Gonzalez kept the attention of the audience with his bare bones performance. His finger picking was fascinating to witness. He filled the room with sound with just his acoustic guitar, at times making it seem as if there were two or three other people playing with him. The most emotion he showed was with his picking. He would strum furiously, especially on songs like “All You Deliver” and “Deadweight on Velveteen” bringing the songs to life, while on “Slow Moves” and “Lovestain” he would quiet down the guitar and let his eerie voice take over as the main instrument. These songs were the perfect background to an autumn night with their mysterious air about them.

Nina Nastasia was the opener, and she was basically a female Jose Gonzalez. Her solo acoustic act at times had her sounding like Nora Jones. She at least tried to converse with the audience, which led to awkwardly funny GPS stories and her marching around the stage because she wasn’t used to all the room. Her charm was welcomed, something missing from Gonzalez’s set.

Gonzalez’s set showed why there hasn’t been much success for the solo acoustic acts in music for around forty years. His personality isn’t nearly charismatic enough and the songs were just about the same as they were on the CD. Having all of the attention was a blessing and a burden to Gonzalez. His technique was very impressive, but his lack of personality while sitting for the whole show could put people to sleep with the calming music he plays. The music, however, was excellent, and at times captivating, but there was not much in the way of visuals. The short set made the whole show seem like an expensive coffee house show. Gonzalez is full of talent, but his performance left more to be desired.

Rating: 2.5/4