Rodrigo y Gabriela

The guitar duo of Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriella Quintero, who go by the name Rodrigo y Gabriella, have certainly been one of rock’s most surprising success stories of the past few years.

Their story is the stuff of legend. Mexican metal band refugees go to Ireland to become Grafton Street buskers. Get discovered by Damian Rice, who takes them on tour and they end up playing stadiums.

We’re talking two acoustic guitarists playing with the dexterity and musicianship of flamenco combined with the attitude and shredding ability of thrash metal along with arena rock showmanship.

With Rodrigo’s nimble finger picking and Gabriella’s powerful percussive and rhythmic style, it’s truly amazing how much music they make while totally rocking out the audience.

Words are hard to come by when trying to describe their shows. It’s something best experienced live.

A sold-out Riviera crowd of XRT listeners did that very thing Friday night as Rodrigo y Gabriella returned to Chicago in support of their fine new album, 11:11. The record is made up of 11 songs inspired by eleven of Rod and Gab’s favorite guitarists. From Hendrix to Santana to Al DiMeola, the collection of six-string workouts is a trip through the artists who’ve influenced their music. None of those giants though, could possibly have influenced Rod and Gab’s unique style of rockin’ the house. That is all their own.

The show started with a good helping of new songs while the audience clapped along and stomped their feet, led by the duo’s exuberant stage presence. Rod promised early on that there would be a surprise, which turned out to be a guest appearance from Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo. With his bass somewhere below his knees, Robert assumed the thrash player’s position while trading licks with Rod as Gabriella stood above the two keeping it all together by rapping out the percussion on the body of her guitar. It made one wonder how sore her knuckles must be after a show.

However thrilling it was, it says something when an appearance by a member of one of the biggest metal bands in history is not the ultimate highlight of the show. For most of the audience it seemed to be the performance of “Tamacun,” from their last album. The crowd went nuts.

My friend had never seen one of their shows and she was really blown away by the whole experience. I know, the promise of 90 minutes of acoustic guitar playing doesn’t sound like a rocking time, but when Rodrigo y Gabriella are bashing it out and flashing the metal sign of the horns after each song and you exit the theatre to the strains of AC/DC, you feel sufficiently rocked.