Heart on a Stick
Very Close to, if not actually in, the CD player:
seen/heard ° stream album ° buy
seen/heard ° stream album ° buy
seen/heard ° stream album ° buy
seen/heard ° listen ° preorder
seen/heard ° listen ° preorder
Will He See the Cookies? (Low & Friends, Bowery Ballroom)
posted 12/07/2006
You remember Low (myspace), right? They’re that Minnesotan reggae outfit with three guitarists, two organists, two drummers, a pair of violinists(*), eight vocalists...“We’re finally going to try something different for you...”
The best Low concert I’ve been to was my first, in December 2003. There was a great mix of favorites, impressive new material, and – the clincher – an encore full of songs from the band’s Christmas EP.
Their holiday collection was different from most for a couple reasons. For one thing, it fits perfectly within the trio’s body of work. Sure, “Just Like Christmas” starts the record off with a brightness and pace unusual for a band once known for smothering “You Are My Sunshine.” But most of the originals are filled with a mix of menace and regret, the cover of “Blue Christmas” is downright melancholic. Hide the razor blades.
Still, it is a Christmas record, buoyed by gorgeous harmonies and – this is the other distinguishing factor – a sincerity you’re not going to find among any of those impulse-buy holiday season cash-ins. Even Low’s ironies are sincere in that Bible-to-forehead where’s-the-easy-answer frustrating way: On Trust they produce a drowned girl and declare, “That’s how you sing Amazing Grace;” one song on Christmas starts and ends by telling Jesus “If you were born today, we’d kill you by age eight.”
The strength of these Mormons’ faith comes from constant confrontation. There’s no nodding and smiling, they earn their way. Which is why when the song hits “Joy to the world and peace on the Earth” it is joyous, and peaceful, and grateful. It’s that survivor’s sense of peace that makes Christmas work.
For people who don’t want to bother, though, there’s always the pretty vocals and the comfort of band’s spare consistency. With Low, you always know what you’re going to get.
*
“We’re finally going to try something different for you...”
And when singer/guitarist Alan Sparhawk announced this, several people in the audience quietly moaned.
Billed as “Low & Friends” – and not mentioned on the Bowery site as a benefit – it was something different, and special. I don’t think there was a single moment I heard anyone shush anyone else. People sang along. People clapped along.
At first, of course, they did what good Low audiences do. They hushed along.
The bulk of the opening half hour consisted of material from the forthcoming Drums and Guns. “Belarus,” “Violent Past,” “Sandinista.” The best song was “Dragonfly,” which they also played at Southpaw last February. “Take Your Time” was really powerful, a dark bluesy bit that could’ve gone on a lot longer than it did.
All were performed by the basic trio – Sparhawk, singer/drummer Mimi Parker (wisely moved to the front of the stage), bassist Matt Livingston – and though they were their usual slowcore selves, most of the songs were over (gasp) synth loops. In one case there was an electronic beat. And to tell you the truth, it all felt very unnecessary. Low’s sound, while often spare, has never been empty. Silences are nullified by keeping the big tom in the red, by feedback, by the questions rumbling throughout. Less is plenty with these guys.
So when eight additional musicians ambled out, you wondered where they were all going to wind up, sonically.
At Christmas, though, you can’t have too many hands in the pot. At Christmas, the more the merrier. And the rest of the show was Christmas.
The “friends” weren’t Superstar Special Guests. This isn’t Bing Crosby’s house, David Bowie ain’t coming over to borrow some sugar. These friends were friends. Locals Ida were up there, as were a few folks from back home who’d never been to New York before.
Every song from Christmas but “Silent Night” made the set list. The evening opened with “One Special Gift,” and the guests were mostly quiet while Sparhawk and Parker played “Taking Down the Tree” on four-string guitar and a toy piano. There was little more than lap steel on “Blue Christmas,” and “Little Drummer Boy” was even quieter than it should have been. The rest was all warm and full and generous, even if it seemed Sparhawk was consciously holding his own guitar back.
Is it time for a second holiday EP? There was a howler from a kid’s point of view, where the panicky refrain of “Santa’s Coming!” held more threat than promise. A “Sufi Christmas carol” (which was, I think, Richard Thompson’s “For Shame of Doing Wrong”). Something that might have been a hymn (“let every tongue confess” was a recurring line) came with a reggae beat.
Yup.
The non-Christmas Low tracks the large group played – Trust’s “Last Snowstorm” and “Canada” – were ones well-suited to the more-more-more approach, but everyone on stage – and everyone in the room – really came together around “Happy Christmas (War is Over).” Too often covers of the old Lennon nugget feel anachronistic, like a pretty little thing that had its time and its place. Last night – and not really because we’re in a war, and not because we seem to be negotiating approaches towards ending it – it seemed right, right there. So this was Christmas. Joyous and peaceful, hopeful and grateful.
*
The benefit was for the Maasai School Project in Kenya. There are pictures on the site of the school they’re building with funds from last year’s concerts, as well as an address where you can mail donations. Unfortunately, there’s no Paypal/direct pay option available.
(*) Or violists. The fiddles looked big, but I’m not sure if that was due to the size of the fiddlers or not.
YES? YOU THERE IN THE BACK? (1)
1. G left...
12/15/2006 12:05 pm
Low are great.
Here is another take on an old Christmas Song ... Coventry Carol
www.myspace.com/agkmusic