Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Group - Bosnian Rainbows @ The Hi-Fi Bar, Sydney (01/12/2012)
Omar Rodriguez Lopes, prolific as he is charming graced the Hi Fi stage to woo Sydney fans on the first of this month. He began by apologising for not making it out to Australia more often due to being so “busy”. I know there is still a month to go but I feel safe in saying that, this has to be the understatement of the year. His solo discography list has now reached a dizzying length of over twenty individual releases in the past 10 years. For most people this would be enough to keep them busy but on top of that he also writes, produces music and acts. Impressed yet?
Despite credentials that most people would see as a license to be on the ultimate ego trip, when he took the stage he seemed to want to take a bit of back seat to the other musicians. On this tour he was accompanied his band in their new Bosnian Rainbows line up. This is a new venture and they are hoping to release something next year.
I am quite sure that it was not quite what most of the crowd was expecting to see… quite literally because most of the material they played has never been recorded or released.
This new project provides a marked difference for the direction of Rodriguez. I went expecting an hour long set, containing four songs at the most, laying on the psychedelia nice and heavy. In reality it was a far more up-tempo set that was, dare I say, almost danceable. The highlight of the gig was the woman Rodriguez has fronting this line up, Teri Gender Bender. An elf like woman with the voice of Enja and Bjok’s love child and the moves of Kate Bush. She was truly mesmerising as she swayed and wailed along to Rodriguez’s ever impressive guitar.
Any change an artist with such devoted fan base makes is always a risk. The music really divided the audience. Some happily swayed and jived along, as others stood sullenly in corners muttering under their breath to each other “whatever happened to that ATDI walking on stage and saying ‘we are never going to sell out’”. Unfortunately for the sulkers (happily for the rest) I don’t think this is the last we will see of Bosnian Rainbows.
Caitlin G P
Despite credentials that most people would see as a license to be on the ultimate ego trip, when he took the stage he seemed to want to take a bit of back seat to the other musicians. On this tour he was accompanied his band in their new Bosnian Rainbows line up. This is a new venture and they are hoping to release something next year.
I am quite sure that it was not quite what most of the crowd was expecting to see… quite literally because most of the material they played has never been recorded or released.
This new project provides a marked difference for the direction of Rodriguez. I went expecting an hour long set, containing four songs at the most, laying on the psychedelia nice and heavy. In reality it was a far more up-tempo set that was, dare I say, almost danceable. The highlight of the gig was the woman Rodriguez has fronting this line up, Teri Gender Bender. An elf like woman with the voice of Enja and Bjok’s love child and the moves of Kate Bush. She was truly mesmerising as she swayed and wailed along to Rodriguez’s ever impressive guitar.
Any change an artist with such devoted fan base makes is always a risk. The music really divided the audience. Some happily swayed and jived along, as others stood sullenly in corners muttering under their breath to each other “whatever happened to that ATDI walking on stage and saying ‘we are never going to sell out’”. Unfortunately for the sulkers (happily for the rest) I don’t think this is the last we will see of Bosnian Rainbows.
Caitlin G P