Rodrigo y Gabriela are not flamenco jazz guitarists. They can't stress this enough, yet the pioneering metal-rockers-turned-spicy-acoustic-virtuosos continue to be labeled as such. Sure enough, the band's Friday evening show on the West Campus Plaza is being advertised as "Flamenco/Jazz Guitars."
"We don't really care if people want to say that, but in the flamenco world, they hate that we say we play flamenco," said Gabriela. "We love flamenco music. But they have completely different approaches than us-they do their own traditions."
Their music is really more a blend of Mexican folk, classical guitar and surprisingly enough, metal. The duo used to play in a Mexican thrash metal band before they ditched their amps for more portable acoustic guitars. Now, they wow audiences with prog-folk covers of "Stairway to Heaven" and Metallica's "Orion."
"It's been quite successful, that fusion," Gabriela said. "People really like it, and some people think it's really funny."
In the past six months, they've taken Europe by storm with their chart-topping eponymous release-the first instrumental album ever to achieve No. 1 in Ireland. Rodrigo y Gabriela will be released Oct. 3 in the United States.
Power chords and lightning-fast riffs don't usually find their way into acoustic guitar stardom, but then again neither do a couple of Mexican drifters who only a few years ago were, "just hanging around, drinking beer and doing nothing for nobody," as Gabriela put it.
Frustrated with the lack of gigs in Mexico City, they quit the metal band and headed to the beach, playing acoustic covers of metal songs as background music at swanky hotels.
Still restless, they jetted off to Europe, guitars in hand. The duo started out playing clubs and busking in the street, traversing Spain, France and Denmark before finally settling in Dublin. They certainly weren't looking to be "discovered," they just wanted to travel the world and play music, Gabriela said. But they soon caught the attention of a young Irish record label called Rubyworks, which put out their debut album, Re-Foc, in 2002.
That led to a series of tours in the U.K. and Ireland, opening for David Gray, Buena Vista Social Club and Damien Rice. Now, with a widely popular album produced by John Leckie (Muse, Radiohead, My Morning Jacket) under their belts, Rodrigo y Gabriela are criss-crossing the U.S., even making an appearance on CBS's Late Late Show Oct. 6.
It's a far cry from their days singing for spare change in Europe, living in less-than-ideal conditions, Gabriela said. About three years ago, she and Rodrigo found out that the building they had been living in was a brothel, although they didn't realize the true nature of their residence until the police came knocking on their door late at night.
"They sent a detective, and they made a lot of questions, and they found out this was a brothel," she said. "I'm not that type of señorita."
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