Club Notes: Rodrigo y Gabriela's folky metal

Red Rocks is known for its amazing acoustics, and it's the perfect outdoor arena to hear the complex guitar sounds of Rodrigo y Gabriela.

The Mexican duo's known for its metal-meets-folk-rock fusion, but Rod and Gab focused their energies on acoustic sounds for their latest 11:11 album and tour. Friday's Red Rocks concert will showcase the newer material -- and you know it's going to sound phenomenal on the rocks.

"We've been doing this for 15 years. We consider it a kind of meditation for us, but we keep changing the concept," lead guitarist Rodrigo Sanchez said. "We're still heavy metal, but now the music's more acoustic and tighter every time we play.

"We had two albums out and we were ready to make something different. We wanted to create a variation of sounds from the metal to keep it going. We still play instrumental music and that gives us more freedom to experiment."

Rodrigo y Gabriela released their self-titled CD in 2006, so it's been a while between recordings. The record jump-started the duo's career and sold more than 600,000 copies.

The duo's fast-paced and intricate guitar work made the act

Rodrigo y Gabriela headline Red Rocks on Friday.

"We're in this acoustic era now, but we've added some pedal effects that are normally used by rock bands," Sanchez said. "We also have these specially made guitars where you can reach new levels and use different effects.

"We wanted to pay homage to the artists that influenced our music on this record. We picked artists that Gabriela and I both liked. We paid homage to artists like Santana and Jimi Hendrix, and there's a track that has a very Pink Floyd vibe."

The release of 11:11 opened even more doors for the guitar pros, and their songs started showing up in some very interesting places.

The duo's music was featured on "Monday Night Football," Rodrigo y Gabriela performed before President Barack Obama in May and the act headlined a stage at this summer's Glastonbury Festival in the U.K.

"We're still going on with this album -- this tour cycle's been for 18 months," Sanchez said. "We do have plans to take a break next year and experiment with some new music.

"We've met a lot of musicians and we've been invited to do a lot of stuff. We're going to stop and think carefully about who we really want to collaborate with."

For now, Rodrigo y Gabriela is gearing up to play Red Rocks.

"We all know Red Rocks is one of the best venues in the world," Sanchez said. "We have the idea to go there and hope the sound reflects well in people's ears.

"We played there once as a support act and we're looking forward to going back there."