Flamenco metal

0

Sunday, Aug. 17: Rodrigo y Gabriela. 7:30 p.m. Red Rocks Ampitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison.

Contradictions have always made for compelling art. But there’s contradictions and then there’s Rodrigo y Gabriela, a duo from Mexico City that hit it big in Dublin, Ireland, where their instrumental, heavy metal-influenced flamenco guitar caught the ear of folk-pop crooner Damien Rice. But the music that comes out is compelling and then some.

Armed with only a pair of nylon string acoustic guitars, the duo plays viciously percussive and dizzyingly complex songs that combine the fretboard-wizardry of Kurt Hammett and Andres Segovia, and sound as if they’re backed by a percussion section.

The band is visiting Colorado to push its first album in five years, 9 Dead Alive.