Thoughts On Low (Concert Recap Part 2)

   (Concert recap continued from yesterday)

   Low, well now Low was a whole different story. For a lot of people, seeing Low is like a religious experience. So in this case, if you will, Loney, Dear was the "praise band" and Low was the sermon. The audience hung on every note, every word, every drumbeat.

    I'm not very familiar with their records, so I knew very few of the songs. But they played a nice, long set. At one point, Alan Sparhawk said to the crowd, How about we try to solve some problems? So people started shouting out things, stuff about the mayor's race, crime, pensions, the Phillies. He tried to give answers, which was pretty entertaining. He wanted more topics and nobody was coming up with anything, so his wife, Mimi Parker, says, "How about disillusionment in marriage?" Everybody roared, and we were like, Yeah! Tell us how to solve that! And he just about shut up completely. She said, What, you don't have anything to say? And he didn't respond except for tuning his guitar and starting the next song. It was a little bit awkward. I think she struck a nerve. Quite frankly, I don't know how they do it: they're married, they work together, and they tour together--that's like, 24-hour togetherness.

    I also can't quite imagine what state of mind you'd have to get yourself into to perform their music every night. They play some heavy, heavy stuff with very little to break the intensity. The ironic thing is that Alan is a really amusing guy. His engaging personality belies their serious, somewhat sinister sound.

    A few highights: They don't put on much of a show, per se, and the "light show" is pretty much nonexistent. However, there was one greenish spotlight shining on Alan's face, kind of like when you hold a flashlight under your chin, and after one song he leaned forward and said, It's really Bauhaus right here (in the light) but not back here (he leaned back out of the light). I suppose you had to be there, but it was pretty funny.

    He also made mention of how quiet everyone was, and how had the ceiling fans been running, that would be the only sound you'd hear. Then he said, Look at those fans up there--think of what they've seen, man. (OK, these stories aren't coming across as very funny, but it was!)

    This was cool. When they played "Breaker," the only percussion was Mimi clapping her hands, and she invited all of us to join her. It was very intimate and it felt like we were all part of the band. Did you know that she stands the entire time she plays? I've never seen that before. Maybe because she doesn't use a full drum set, just a cymbal, snare and larger, deeper sounding drum, she stands.

    All in all, it was a great show even though I didn't know most of the songs. They're a very well-established band with a lot of depth. I'm glad I got to see them, even though I was really there for Loney, Dear.

Low --"Breaker" mp3 off Drums and Guns (buy) I really wanted them to play "Hatchet" mp3, but they didn't.

Click here to read what NPR has to say about Low and Loney, Dear and to hear their show the night after I saw them, recorded at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C.

tags: low  loney dear  

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