While tiny snowflakes fell from the sky and revelers up and down 16th Street knocked back Guinness and green beer, , the soft-spoken singer-songwriter from Gothenburg, Sweden, gave the Paramount Theatre an intimate St. Patrick’s Day performance.
Still touring behind his latest album, “Vestiges & Claws,” released last winter, González returned to Colorado last night less than a year after a at the Gothic Theatre. This time, there were no amps, no keyboard, no drums or bass guitar. On stage by himself, armed with only a classical guitar, González finger-picked his way through a short set of his own songs before being joined by a group of six young classical instrumentalists.
The New York-based sextet called yMusic opened for González before they joined his side. Though the members of yMusic write and record their own compositions, they also function as a backup collaborative band for many popular acts, having performed with artists such as Ben Folds, Bon Iver, Antony and the Johnsons, and Dirty Projectors.
Related: Primer: José González, the sensitive Swedish songwriter
González’ raw talent and emotion are central to his bare-bones folk songs, which took on different lights when played solo and with yMusic. yMusic enhanced the song’s subtleties with viola, violin, cello, clarinet, flute, trumpet and saxophone. The symphonic layers shined brightest on “Crosses,” and “This is How We Walk on the Moon,” a cover of the Arthur Russell song.
Some fans were likely hoping for a longer set (he didn’t even play “Teardrop”), but González and yMusic kept things short and sweet and ended the hour-long main set with a chilling version of “Killing for Love,” a single from his 2007 album “In Our Nature.”
Setlist: José González, Paramount Theatre, 03/17/16
1. Stay in the Shade
2. Cycling Trivialities
3. Every Age
4. Stories We Build, Stories We Tell
5. Line of Fire (Junip song)
6. What Will
With yMusic
7. Crosses
8. The Nest
9. Lovestain
10. Abram
11. This is How We Walk on the Moon (Arthur Russell cover)
12. Fold
13. Open Book
14. With the Ink of a Ghost
15. Heartbeats (The Knife cover)
Encore, with yMusic
16. yMusic instrumental
17. Let it Carry You
18. Killing for Love
