Tuesday September 23, 2008 at Bell House: An Evening with Low

First the setlist:

Soon
Last Snowstorm of the Year
Like a Forest
Canada
Belarus
Lion/Lamb
Sunflower
Breaker
Pretty People
Point of Disgust
LaLaLa Song
BREAK
Do you know how to waltz?
Violent Past
That's how you sing Amazing Grace
Hatchet
Starfire
Unknown Song
Lordy
Pissing
Laser Beam
ENCORE
Santa is Coming
New Song

As you may be able to see from the setlist, Low played a pretty diverse set, covering most of their stuff all the way back to The Curtain Hits the Cast. This was a surprise to me since every time I've seen them, the set has been mostly focused on new material (I've seen them on their tours following Trust and Destroyer and I saw a Christmas show that was heavy on Drums and Guns material prior to its release). I could easily think of ten more songs I would have loved to hear, but that didn't really bother me since they played for about 2 hours and included more than twenty songs. I'm wondering if their show the previous night at the Mercury covered a totally different set list. I'm kind of betting it did, and I sort of regret missing that.

The new bassist might actually be my favorite. I saw him earlier this year playing bass guitar with the Retribution Gospel Choir, so I was somewhat surprised to see him playing standup bass last night. It was a nice touch for a lot of the songs, especially when he played it with the bow. A couple of songs were played differently than I've heard them.

But as usual, the main attraction was Alan Sparhawk. Whether he was shredding during "Lordy" (shredding may be a bit much. It was a pretty relaxed solo--still, very effective), warming up "Canada" with feedback and droning or almost-shouting during "Breaker" and "All the Pretty People", he was the center of attention. And that's probably my only complaint. The bass seemed a bit low in the mix, and Mimi Parker's voice was usually burried under his. She only sang lead vocals for one song. It's pretty clear that Alan Sparhawk is the genius (yes, I said genius) behind Low (and at least two other bands), but Mimi Parker is still responsible for plenty of their finest moments. Unfortunately, those are fewer and fewer these days.

Beyond that, I'm not really sure what to say about this show. It was a strong performance by one of my favorite bands. Every Low show I've been to has had some awkward audience banter between Alan Sparhawk and the audience. This show wasn't an exception, but at least it was kept to a minimum. I have a friend who refused to go see Low because she thought their music couldn't possibly be as engaging in a live setting. This drove me crazy, because to me, Low is one of the more exciting live bands around. Sure, most of their songs aren't very danceable, and they are one of the quietest live bands around (but they can unleash their fair amount of noise as they did last night), but Low knows how to sell every single not of every single song. That's not something every band can do. And they can inspire an entire audience to remain quiet enough to hear a few plucked guitar notes. That's something special.