Baby's First Blog... Rock and Roll.

03.12.08
Mia Toi Dodd & Jose Gonzalez
Masonic Temple: Ft. Greene, Brooklyn

Move over, Cat Power - there's a new songbird in town. This crooning songstress, however, brought us something new to the temple. Acoustics pulled from the Far East, Mid-East and fused with Latino influences hypnotized hipsters in the Masonic Temple last night. "Fear is an ocean... so many sleepless nights" - a song dedicated to all servers out there, including me! "But I'm not one of them", she remarks. Lucky for her, music seems to pay the rent these days, more so than mere writing. I watched intently as the beautifully exotic Mia Toi Dodd charmed more than just snakes onstage. "Holy shit", a young male fan declares as she and her bongo beatin' accomplice break effortlessly into "Kokoro", the Japanese word for heart. This brooding rhythm served as the perfect accompaniment to Mia's Joni Mitchell-meets-Sarah McLaughlin style. Don't get me wrong, however, for she is no Lillith Fair whiner. Finally, a talent that has evolved past angry chick rock. At last, a female musician gets spiritualized. I can still hear the Celtic monastic chanting echoing throughout the temple as a tribal tambourine beat filled the stage during the finale of their set. Feeling somewhat uplifted and enlightened myself, I suddenly found my own gaze at the temple's ceiling. As I closed my eyes I could feel old monks and clergymen around me, chanting; praying. As their performance came to a close, my eyes opened, widened by the vast beauty of paisley printed walls, dusty 70s-style chandeliers and disco-wrapped pillars. I sat in my folding chair, soaking it all in while my friend/partner-and-crime grabbed us another beer.

Within twenty minutes, the lights went down again as the stage was saturated with red floodlights. Out from shadows steps a very tall dark and handsome Swede, and two others. The entire crowd fell silent as all eyes were affixed to Jose. Williamsburg's hipster elite flew south of the Bedford Ave border to see the man behind the acoustic prowess. Without much need for backup and accompaniment, Jose Gonzales, like a Swedish Santana, filled the entire temple with more guitar sound than I ever thought possible by one human alone. Nobody moved a muscle while rotating blue and white lights shot out to the heavens from behind him during "How Low" - the first track off the new album. He looked like an angel, with guitar as harp - a direct extension of his soul. "In Our Nature" follows flawlessly as the crowd of nearly five hundred watched in both awe and amazement. After a full guitar solo, the silence was broken by "Heartbeats" as the audience nearly jumped to their feet. We clapped along with “Remain” as the ambience darkened and we reveled in more cowbell in “Down the Line” as the darkness ate us up during the encore.

A shot of Todd followed by a high dose of Jose was just what the doctor ordered on this chilly spring night at Brooklyn’s Masonic Temple. Stay tuned ‘cause there’s plenty more where this came from my friends. Until then, I bid you adieu. I'm sure y'all will be waiting with baited breath...