It might just be one man, a classical guitar and a microphone but Jose Gonzalez is a musician who can keep absolutely everyone’s attention. His songs are simple in structure and most go for no longer than 3 minutes but for those 3 minutes, there is dead silence. I’ll leave the reviews upto other people like Sean and Amanda to write so i’ll just get to the photos.

The Factory Theatre is always a hard place to photograph because of the intensity (or lack of) of the lights so I only went prepared with my 50mm f.14 and 100mm f2 lenses and I apologise to the punters in the front row who’s toes I might have stepped on while I was moving around.

Originally, when I left Wollongong around 5.30, my confirmation for a photo pass hadn’t gone through so I turned up and asked if it had been organised. The girl at the door politely said no and asked if I had my camera. I stupidly said ‘yes’ so she then was forced to confiscate it. I felt like a dill. Thankfully, someone from Jose’s label was there and approved the pass and I was sent an SMS telling me to come and collect it. I was stoked!

Getting so close to Jose really gets me as a fellow guitarist to appreciate how skillful he is at his art. His left hand barely moves up and down the fretboard as he has such good control of his fingers. Oh how I wish I could play like that! His multitude of tunings is something I’m a fan of, when I used to play, I needed 4 or 5 guitars in different tunings (or get a roadie to tune my guitars for me!).

I feel quite privileged to have seen this show with the 299 odd other people who were there and having heard the new songs, I’m quite sure that when he comes back, there will be quite a few more people wanting to see him.

A big boo to the 2 people sitting in front of me who spent the whole set talking. Seriously people, you’re in an intimate venue for an international artist who’s got the audience in the palm of his hand, and here you are drinking and talking between yourselves. If you wanted to chat while listening to his music, go home, put his CD on, and let the real fans enjoy the show.

All photos in the gallery can be found here.