Low: Classic or classic?

^^ shit's wack

and yeah, classic. particularly the very early stuff, which stylistically i prefer a whole lot to the recent stuff, which tends to be a little too comfortable and prosaic for my liking

Buncha fuckin Helen Lovejoys on that DiS thread non-shocker

this is all very sad. that's not the first thing i've read about onstage trouble in the last few months, either.

weird. I know alan was talking publicly about going on medication a couple of years ago so my assumption would be that it has something to do with that.

but it is a bit funny to think you'd get HURT at a low show

Buncha fuckin Helen Lovejoys on that DiS thread non-shocker

it was a seriously dangerous and fucking stupid thing to do. also, that festival was awash with kids. sparhawk is very lucky that he isn't facing manslaughter charges, and i am not being remotely hysterical here.

i mean, i was there, and the whole thing was *horrific, actually properly upsetting. sorry that the DiS readers aren't chuckling it off with sub-Chunklet ironic machismo, dude.

I primarily meant the hectoring pseudo-concern for the mental problems of someone they've never met, and directives of what he should and shouldn't do with his life. I know people care about the band (as do I) and the guy's problems sound horrible, but it rubbed me up the wrong way is all

no worries dude, i was totally over-vociferous up there. apols.

Would anyone out there be willing to ysi me a copy of "Prisoner"? It's on the Lifetime of Temporary Relief box set (also originally appeared in the limited Finally... EP). I'm desperate to find it but the songs from the box set aren't available on emusic, amazon, or itunes. I'd be very grateful...

unless someone beats me to it i'll up it later on today for you

Someone beat you to it - got an email with the link. Thanks though! I'm writing about Low all week starting tomorrow (here) and really wanted to include mention of this song. I only have it on cassette, of all things.

LOW played a unique (one time only) 2 and a half hour, 25 song concert in Eindhoven, the Netherlands (Catharina church) on January 22nd of 2009. (Crosslinx festival)

It was a collaboration with David Dramm and these were the players: (I just copy/pasted/translated this from concertzender.nl )

Low: Alan Sparhawk, voice, guitar. Mimi Parker: voice, percussion. Steve Garrington: bass guitar.
VocalLab: Bauwien van der Meer, Elsbeth Gerritsen, Fanny Alofs, Christian Damsgaard, Job Hubatka
Margarita Kourtparadisou, Marcel Andriessen: percussion.
Dominik Blum (Steamboat Switzerland) : church organ, Hammond B3, piano, Korg.
David Dramm: arrangements.

recorded at the Catharinakerk Eindhoven, 22-1-2009.
recording technician: Kees van de Wiel

The whole concert was broadcast in two parts on the Dutch (online?) radio station Concertzender on May 18th and yesterday and the streams are still available on demand.
All in 128 kbps, unfortunately, but still, not to be missed. (I don't know how long the station's on demand content remains online, by the way, don't think they delete anything, but I'm not sure at all)

PART ONE:

http://audio.omroep.nl/cz/cz/thema/20090518-20.mp3 (LOW = first 78 minutes of the 2-hour mp3)

David Dramm.
1. The wheel of Catherina.

Low.
2. Amazing Grace.
3. Sunflower.
4. In metal.
5. Candy Girl.
6. Dinosaur act.
7. Kind of girl.
8. Point of disgust.
9. Whitetail.
10. Canada.
11. Belarus.
12. Breaker.
13. Silver Rider.
14. Shots and ladders.

PART TWO:

http://audio.omroep.nl/cz/cz/thema/20090615-20.mp3 (LOW = first 77 minutes of the 2-hour mp3)

Low.
1. July.
2. Pretty People.
3. Take your Time.
4. Monkey.
5. Evertbody's Song.
6. The Lamb / Blood of the Lamb.
7. Violent Past.
8. Laser Beam.
9. In Silence.
10. Always Fade.
11. Dragonfly.
12. Murderer.
13. &20 (My Love (is for Free))
14. Sandinista.
15. When I go Deaf. (with David Dramm joining in on electric guitar)

Thanks!

Tons of Things We Lost in the Fire material in that set. Seems kinda random but ok!

This is great, thanks.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU will dl when I get home.

Amazing setlist.

Sandinista live is always *amazing*. Do they ever do "Embrace"? I'd love to hear a live version.

Oh wow, thanks for the links - some great stuff there by the look of it.

Small detail correction, by the way: apparently I misunderstood the presenter there, this wasn't the crosslinx festival, but the heartland festival (a collaboration between two local Eindhoven museums and the Smart museum of Art in Chicago). Sorry about that.

"Take Your Time" is amazing here.

(dammit! I thought I prepared my post thoroughly, but now I find out I can't count! That's 28 Low songs, not 25)

Do they ever do "Embrace"? I'd love to hear a live version.

Yes. If memory serves, they played it in Austin a few years back.

I saw Sparhawk open for the Meat Puppets a couple weeks back, and boy was it weird. His lyrics were bizarre and often embarrassing, and his voice and guitar reverberated so much that I started to feel like I was part of a weird social experiment where my reactions were being taped while I listened to someone mentally breakdown onstage. To date, it was probably the oddest concert experi[ence/ment?] I've ever had.

interesting story

I thought the whole recording was all a bit quiet, but then it IS Low, of course... :-)

In the main, this is Low's live wonderfulness and some of the additional instrumentation works really well. But the overpowering, and frankly wholly redundant, backing vocals (ie. female voice other than Mimi) on Sandinista totally scupper the song...

I saw Sparhawk open for the Meat Puppets a couple weeks back, and boy was it weird. His lyrics were bizarre and often embarrassing, and his voice and guitar reverberated so much that I started to feel like I was part of a weird social experiment where my reactions were being taped while I listened to someone mentally breakdown onstage. To date, it was probably the oddest concert experi[ence/ment?] I've ever had.

This is a concern, given Sparhawk's past (see that documentary film about the band from a year ago, You Might Need A Murderer).

This is a concern, given Sparhawk's past (see that documentary film about the band from a year ago, You Might Need A Murderer).

I couldn't place him at first, only remembering him from Low towards the end of the set... He seemed like a local guy, certainly no one who would be recognized on a national scale; everything came off as sort of amateur (just a guy with an electric guitar, no back up band, strange and embarrassing lyrics about the perils of war, etc.). He just stood there almost motionless, strumming his guitar in a rhythmless manner way that created a giant, amorphous wall of sound. Aside from his set, which seemed like the soundtrack to a bad acid trip, his between-song banter was rather stilted, with a lot of awkward pauses and rambling comments, and an apparent lack of self-awareness. I'm not sure if this is how he always is, but it was somewhat unsettling to me. When he left the stage, he said something like "I guess I'll get off the stage now so you can see some real music."

I'm not sure if this is how he always is

Yes, it is :)

Grimly otm. I've seen Low many times and Alan's stage persona has evolved (if that's the word) into this very dead-pan, almost bereft figure on the last couple of tours. Without the band it sounds like he's even more twitchy.

Wasn't there a thing where he forcefully threw a guitar at an audience at one of the ATP festivals?

Man, I worry about that dude.

Scroll up. (xpost)

Ah, yes, I see.

I realise how incredibly lame this sounds spoken out loud, but... can anyone do something about this, FFS?

Do you mean something like a fan intervention? We're all concerned for his wellbeing, and I think us fans could voice that, but any more than that, I don't know, wouldn't that become way too personal very quickly?

he's a guy with mental health issues; i don't know that circumnavigating awkward onstage conversation would be a real triumph of intervention. it is what it is.

he has a wife who loves him and many people who love him, he's not some loner out there on the streets with no-one overseeing how he acts and behaves

You guys are right, that was my inside voice coming out... as well as a lot of personal life stuff involving loved ones with mental illness. I almost get anxiety attacks of my own thinking about Alan Sparhawk! I don't mean this in a stan-like way (hopefully), but we do get invested in the people whose music makes our own lives better. Not sure what we can do in this scenario, though.

Let's call A&E and get him on Intervention. Hey, it was good enough for Travis Meeks from Days of the New.

i wonder if they'd play the opening music extra slow for that episode

I just cried listening to the Transmission EP, so it would have to be classic.

these guys make me well up all the time.

I saw them last week at this free music+movies thing in mpls, introducing Jaws (which they picked). Alan claimed that the first day he met Mimi, in 4th grade, she gave him a betamax copy of Jaws, and told him to study it if he wanted to make it big.

'Long Division' playing now. I'm so maudlin at the moment.

Has there ever been a Low poll? I can't find one. If not, then we should have one. I'm getting deep in again at the moment. 'Songs For A Dead Pilot' now, after 'Curtain Hits The Cast' this afternoon at work.

yeah, there is an album poll around somewhere.

I'll have a more dedicated look. Searching for Low brings up a lot of things.

Found it, but it was screwed up for some image related reason, so that a load of the results don't show up at all: What is the best Low album/release?

I demand a re-poll!

Was the solo guitar album any good?