José González w/ Ólöf Arnalds at the Cedar, Minneapolis (16 Apr 15)

photo credit: @thecedar José González Setlist Afterglow Stories We Build, Stories We Tell Killing for Love Hand on Your Heart (Kylie Minogue cover) Every Age Always (Junip song) With the Ink of a Ghost Solo Set Crosses Hints Heartbeats What Will Home (Barbarossa cover) This Is How We Walk on the Moon (Arthur Russell cover) Teardrop (Massive Attack cover) Down the Line Cycling Trivialities -- Encore -- I'll Be Your Mirror (Velvet Underground cover) with Ólöf Arnalds Let It Carry You Leaf Off / The Cave Read More José González It's official, José González entire North American tour is sold out*. This is Gonzales' first solo tour dates since 2008 (we previously saw him with Junip in 2011 and 2013), so fans … Ólöf Arnalds Sondre Lerche on "Blossom", Channy Leaneagh on "Counting", and Ólöf Arnalds on "The Nest". As pointed out by Arnalds, drummer Greg Saunier, from Deerhoof, was the odd-man out …

Indie folk singer-songwriter and guitarist José González is currently on a sold-out US tour, stopping by the Cedar Cultural Center for a two night residency (April 16 and April 17). González has a new album Vestiges & Claws (Mute); his first album in seven years. We caught the Swedish/Spanish singer on Thursday night.

Ólöf Arnalds

Opening up the show was Icelandic singer/songwriter Ólöf Arnalds, who we previously saw in 2013 with Jherek Bischoff. I've also previously mentioned was the singer of múm and cousin to neo-classical composer Ólafur Arnalds.

Ólöf, alone on stage with her acoustic guitar, sang some new songs from her latest Palme (One Little Indian), including "Turtledove" to an extremely quiet and polite Cedar Cultural Center audience. Her one cover in her 30-min set was "Caetano Veloso" by Brazilian singer Maria Bethânia.

Sweden's José González took the stage with a full touring band and backlit stage lighting.

Setlist

José González's set can be broken down in three parts: the first section featuring mostly songs from the latest album Vestiges & Claws ("Afterglow", "Stories We Build, Stories We Tell", "Every Age", "With The Ink Of A Ghost"), but throwing in some older songs and a Kylie Minogue cover ("Hand on Your Heart") and one Junip song (González's band).

In the middle of the set, the band took a break and left González on stage to play a solo set of his solo debut album Veneer: "Crosses", "Hints", and "Heartbeats".

The third and last part of his set was fun. González basically played one new song, three covers (Barbarossa, Arthur Russell, and an odd choice of Massive Attack), and ending with two songs from his previous solo album In Our Nature ("Down the Line" and "Cycling Trivialities").

Ólöf Arnalds with José González

For the encore, they invited Ólöf Arnalds on stage with the full band and they played "I'll Be Your Mirror", the Velvet Underground (with Nico) cover song. It is a very faithful cover, you can tell right away that they got the notes just right. The rest of the encore were two songs from the new album ("Let It Carry You" and "Leaf Off / The Cave")

NOTE: Although "Let It Carry You" was listed as the fourth song in the set, it was not played early... instead, they saved it for the encore.

Gonzalez's remaining sold out US tour dates:

04/20 - Englewood - Gothic Theatre
04/21 – Boulder, CO – E Town
04/22 - Salt Lake City, UT - The Depot
04/24 – Portland, OR – Roseland Theater
04/25 – Vancouver, BC – Imperial
04/27 - San Francisco, CA - Bimbo's 365 Club
04/28 - San Francisco, CA – Bimbo’s 365 Club
04/29 - Los Angeles - The Regent
04/30 - Los Angeles – The Regent

José González at Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (16 April 2015)

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