With the release of his new album, “Paradise” and his single “Sunnier Days”, Diego Garcia showed his happier side at the Troubadour on Monday night and his fans rejoiced in the sunnier days Diego is living in these days and with a potent and high energy performance, Diego had everyone in high spirits.
Diego Garcia’s first album, “Laura”, was a “break up” album, as Diego calls it, and It was filled with heart breaking lyrics and dramatic minor notes, and after “getting his girl back” as Diego mentioned last night, the new album “Paradise” shows a much more upbeat mood and lyrics but still very romantic with an air of old 60’ and 70’s Spanish pop.
After the breakup of his indie band, Elefant, Diego, went on a search of his Latin and Argentine roots and on his two solo albums one can hear the influence of the music his parents used to listen to and artist like Julio Iglesias, Sandro, Piero Roberto Carlos and others from that era are evident not only in the music but also lyrically, and most importantly, Diego, just like those old singers he admires, is able to make romantic music without sounding cheesy or over produced.
Leaving behind the string accompaniments and mostly acoustic guitars that was a central focus of his live performances on his previous tour, Diego “rocks” out with his new touring band, in which he includes more electric guitars and even the songs from his previous album sound refreshed with this new band set up.
Playing a large portion of the new album, “Paradise”, Diego started off the evening with “Darling Please” followed by “Donde Estas” and “Tell Me” and slowly updated versions of songs from his first album began to appear like the title track, “Laura”, “Stay” and “You Were Never There” and for the encores, Diego went even further back in his musical history an dusted off raucous renditions of “Tonight Let’s Dance” and “Bokkie” from his former band, Elefant.
I have had the opportunity to see Diego Garcia in concert several times since his days in Elefant, and like a good wine, he just keeps getting better and better every time.
