Part of my ‘live a little once a month’, yesterday was Jose Gonzalez live at Shepherd’s Bush. I’ve got to say that I really loved the concert. His voice seriously resonated perfectly in the venue and the atmosphere in there was generally really warm and receptive. There was a completely crazy screamer in the background that was pretty funny (even made Jose stop for a little while and smile just before he was about to play ‘Heartbeats’).

Obviously no gig would be complete with the obligatory annoying assholes that somehow seem to gravitate towards me and mine with some bullshit or other. In this particular case it was this couple; now I’m not a man that condones this type of thing, but if for some reason so bored youths with nothing better to do on a Saturday night want to happy slap a couple with a penchant for checkered shirts and EXTREMELY white teeth, then please by all means go forth an conquer with Uncle Khaled full endorsement and blessing. God those two were fucking annoying. They were sticking their hands in each other’s backsides (read: scratching each other’s arses) and kept kissing each other every time a cord was played….sorry it was annoying seeing as I was trying to maneouvre away from them but once the gig starts and you’re standing, there’s little where to go. Top tip, if it’s a mellow affair, then definitely try and get some seated tickets.

What was also interesting was the fact that support ‘band’, Death Vessel. Never has a name and personal style ever gone in complete and direct CONTRAST to the actual music being played. One guy comes out with his guitar. That was Death Vessel. From the website and from the half garbled name the man in question was Joel Thibodeau, easily one of the softest voices I’ve heard on a man in a really long time…since Puressence I would say. So much so that Lizzy was commenting on what a great voice SHE had….lizzy hadn’t clocked what he looked like and yeah that was a surprise. But the great thing was that by the end of his set he had more people than would normally come up for a support act really listening and generally enjoying themselves. One man, one guitar.

So what was the highlight for me in terms of the main act? Apart from the stonkingly good voice, I personally loved ‘Crossroads’ to be honest. You’d think it was something like ‘Heartbeats’ but nah, it was ‘Crossroads’. Behind Jose was this large canvas that was playing loads of white animations on black and blue backgrounds and the lighting was fairly decent, but nothing to right home about.

Next gig I guess will probably be ‘Radiohead’, bring it on :).