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Rodrigo y Gabriela
Live In Japan

Campus Correspondent Review By Trevor Starnes,
Samford University

At first thought, dueling classical guitars based upon the guitar styles of Latin, metal and folk, sounds like the most random and confused style of music. In fact, it’s sure to make listeners wonder how can this genre be combined in order to make a good sound and/or why would someone listen to these three drastically different styles together? But Rodrigo y Gabriela answers all the confused questions by infusing these three distinctly different sounds into one great style. Rodrigo’s guitar playing is based on metal aspects, full of sick riffs and a ton of soloing. On the other side, Gabriela’s style is more on the folk and classical type, the brunt of her sound is done through the tapping and strumming made famous in the motion picture August Rush. With their self-titled breakout album that hit stores in 2006, Rodrigo y Gabriela switch gears to release a live CD/DVD pack entitled Live in Japan.

The album has many new tracks, but it also brings many of their smash hits from their studio album and makes them into live hits. “Stairway to Heaven,” made famous by Led Zeppelin, is one example that gets brought to life on this album. Rodrigo y Gabriela produce a similar style to the studio version of the classic, but they bring a fresh beginning solo to the selection. “Viking Man,” a new single on the live album named after a homeless friend the two met in Dublin, is an up-tempo hit, full of dueling guitars that shows similar resemblance to a Tokyo rush hour. “Rodrigo Solo” features Rodrigo putting every major element of a textbook solo into this track, including an awesome sample of The White Stripes’ “7 Nation Army” in the middle just for kicks.

Rodrigo y Gabriela aptly bring their studio sound to the big stage, making their instrumentation come to life. As for the DVD, it only has five live songs on it, which is a little disappointing, but continues to showcase just how much energy and passion these Dublin-based rockers convey to their audience.