Low: A New Album, a Live Show, and a Live Show

First things first: Low’s concert from Washington, D.C. will stream live from npr.org tonight (here). The opening band, Lonely, Dear, will take the stage at around 8:45 EDT, which means that Low will probably start playing at 9:45 or so. I have listened to a couple of Wilco concerts streamed from npr.org and I have been impressed by the sound quality. So if you’re a fan of Low, and you should be, you would do well not to miss this. [Actually, it's probably not a big deal if you miss it, because they usually archive the shows and make them available for streaming, and sometimes download, at the All Songs Considered website.]

Of course, listening over the internet is not nearly as good as seeing them live, as I can attest, having seen them just last night in Philadelphia. It was a great performance, the audience was attentive and appreciative, and the cheesesteak was delicious, so overall it was a good night.

Many of you know that Low’s newest album Drums and Guns was released last month. I had a bit of a hard time getting it at first. Sonically, it’s miles removed from anything they’ve done before. In contrast to the minimalist tendencies of Low’s previous work, many of the songs are laid down on a bed of noise and feature some sort of sample or guitar drone. “Belarus” features a constant loop of Mimi Parker’s distorted and remixed voice over which frontman Alan Sparhawk and Parker sing in harmony a simple melody with these cryptic lyrics: “To my mouth/ Frozen shut/ Mother’s son/ Paper cup/ Belarus/ Belarus.” “Breaker” features a drum machine and hand claps.

Hardest of all for me to swallow was what they did with a couple songs, “Murderer” and “Dragonfly,” the live versions of which I had heard and loved. The noisy production of the album versions tend to flatten the songs out, making them less dynamic and less dramatic.

I have come around to Drums and Guns, though. While the production is much busier and dirtier than anything Low have done before, for the most part, the songwriting is still vintage Low.

Anyways, I think the production decisions were the appropriate ones for this group of songs. I don’t think they changed up their sound just for the sake of changing up their sound. The songs deal with sinister subject matter like war, death, and conflict, and the sound and feel of the record follows suit, enhancing the overall dark feel.

“Sinister” is exactly the word that Sparhawk used last night to describe the stretch of several songs near the beginning of their set that included such menacing songs as “Point of Disgust,” “Sandinista,” “In Silence,” and “Breaker.” Before moving on to somewhat lighter fare like “July” and “Silver Rider,” he said to his bandmates “Lets do one more sinister one first,” as he started into “Take Your Time,” I think it was.

I had been curious to see how their approach in concert would change after releasing an album that departs so much sonically from their previous work. For the most part, they played the songs straight up, without much of the noise work that’s so prevalent on the album. One major change is that for a few songs, bassist Patrick Livingston played a little keyboard organ. Also, for “Belarus” and “Breaker,” they used Parker’s sampled vocals and the drum machine track, respectively. But both “Murderer” and “Dragonfly” were played in the spare, relatively quiet way I was familiar with.

“Sandinista” was one of the highlights of the show for me. They slowed the song way down and Sparhawk did some impressive droning and noisemaking on his guitar.

Low is just about the perfect live band. Sparhawk and Parker have beautiful, perfectly controlled singing voices. Their volume control and dynamics are impeccable. When they get loud, it’s really loud and dramatic, especially as contrasted with their quiet, minimal moments, but you can still hear every element and really listen.

Below are the songs I know were played last night. The order is not quite right and I might have missed some songs.

Cue the Strings
Sandinista
Dragonfly
Breaker
Belarus
Point of Disgust
Take Your Time
In Silence
July
Silver Rider
Pissing
Murderer
In the Drugs
Violence
Breaker