Kirstiecat | Blog

10/14/6
Lakeshore Theater in Chicago

Juana Molina is an Argentinean born musician who had a previous career as a television actress in Argentina, which is perhaps why whenever I’ve seen her live little bits of her sense of humor and personality show through between the songs. This time, at the very beginning of the first song, her vocals were barely audible until one of the sound guys fixed something. The audience sighed with relief, relishing in the loveliness that followed, and she joked, “Oh they weren’t there before? Good!”

Since her television career, she has put out four albums: Rara, Segundo, Tres Cosas, and most recently released, the lush and beautifulSon. Live, each of the three times I have seen her she’s played songs off of these latter three albums, which show her coming into her own kind of enchanting melody and style. She isn’t quite traditional folk, almost because the sound is too complicated and modern. There is a bit of an electronic element. The songs are also very calming in a way that most electronic songs aren’t which leads to a whole new sound undeniably gentle and feminine. Even though she plays by herself and not with a backing band, the songs feel just as complete and mesmerizing perhaps because of her adept looping and sampling. It’s almost like a symphony of Juanas. Seeing her is always a real experience that engages your entire self. It’s strange because sometimes you can see the loudest rocking out indie rock band and you feel so much more passive in comparison than when you see and hear the loveliness that is Juana Molina.

I love Juana Molina’s music with my whole heart and when I listen to her songs I feel an emotional connection that transcends language. This was my third time seeing her and she explained how she could not really write songs in English because it is not her language but I think just as you can sometimes guess what two people are saying by the sounds and inflections their voices make and how their hands move, so it is with Juana. Her voice becomes a texture in one of many layers upon layers that make her music wonderful. Juana was more wry this time and did sing for us one song in English. entitled “The Wrong Song,” (the last track on her album Segundo) which lyrically consisted of “You’re wrong I’m right” sung in a few different ways. She also sang her song in French, “Insensible” which was a real treat. On “Micael” she explained how it was full of her daughter’s ideas but she composed the arrangements for it. The songs, as always, became tremendous loops and almost atmospheric but with direction that you can’t say for most music described this way. Her Spanish vocals as always floated above the beautiful piano and guitar. The echoing layer upon layer of perfect vocals that float around you are almost like soft balloons for children to catch.

Listen to Juana Molina and become her friend on myspace

View José’s Utube video for the show

Click to see more pictures and tour dates:

View the complete photo set with Juana Molina and Adem on flickr here

Remaining Tour Dates:

Oct 17 2006 9:30P
Walnut Room Denver
Oct 18 2006 10:15P
Urban Lounge Salt Lake City
Oct 20 2006 10:00P
Crocodile Cafe Seattle
Oct 21 2006 11:00P
Doug Fir Lounge Portland
Oct 23 2006 9:00P
Great American Music Hall San Francisco
Oct 24 2006 10:30P
Echo Los Angeles
Oct 25 2006 10:30P
Casbah San Diego
Oct 26 2006 10:00P
The Parish Austin
Nov 18 2006 8:00P
Personal Fest Buenos Aires
Nov 27 2006 8:00P
CrawDaddy Dublin
Nov 28 2006 8:00P
Roisin Duh Galway
Nov 29 2006 8:00P
Cyprus Avenue Cork
Nov 30 2006 8:00P
Paradiso Amsterdam
Dec 1 2006 8:00P
Stenhammarsalen Gothemburg
Dec 2 2006 8:00P
Sodra Teatern Stockholm
Dec 4 2006 8:00P
Cafe Mono Oslo
Dec 7 2006 8:00P
La Scala London
Dec 8 2006 8:00P
Teatro Circo Braga
Dec 9 2006 8:00P
Transmusicales Renne
Dec 10 2006 8:00P
Botanique Bruxelles

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 17th, 2006 at 6:51 am and is filed under music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.