As the "Don't Miss" item atop Tuesday's Herald Arts suggested it might be, this was a performance by the Minnesota "slowcore" trio not to miss.
While April's Glasgow concert following the release of the band's Subpop album, The Invisible Way, had to contend with the noise from the club one floor below, this time the group were heard by a rapt crowd who shot daggers at anyone clumsily dropping an empty plastic glass.
Guitarist and songwriter Alan Sparhawk, who had been far from put out by the distractions in Glasgow, took time here to thank the audience for their silence and focus, recognising that many of those in the room had been following the career of himself and his percussionist wife Mimi Parker through the succession of bassists that have completed the trio over the past 20 years. Steve Garrington currently adds piano to the mix as well, but it was his fuzz bass partnership with Sparhawk's precision cranked-up playing that will be best remembered from this gig. It was a concert where Low made the most of the dynamic range from very quiet to very loud that made us love them in the first place, recasting some of their older songs, as well as tracks from the current album, to make us listen up.
Nonetheless, it was the new work - a powerful On My Own, a gorgeous Holy Ghost, and the intriguing Clarence White - that made the most impact, however understandable it is that the band feel obliged to play the songs lucratively covered by Robert Plant. This audience had certainly heard those often before. The only question was why there were so comparatively few of them this time around.
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