The Low Anthem

[chaqueta sucia]

Not sure if there was a thread started for these guys but there should be.  One of the most talented and best bands in all of music right now and one I love dearly.  I saw them last night as the "main act"(previous three times were as the opening act) and I have to say I have not been this blown away by a show in a while.  Ben Knox Miller(the lead singer) is imo one of the best lyricists on the planet and his vocal skills live are unreal.  He also has so much talent as a musician as does the rest of his band in particular Jeff Prystowsky and Jocie Adams.  All three of their albums are brilliant and really one could do know wrong owning any or all of them.  Oh My God, Charlie Darwin put them on the indie map big time and The Smart Flesh continued that trend of them being one of the most talented out there.  My two big highlights lastnight were one meeting and talking with Ben Knox Miller before the show(so nice) and the band singing Apothecary Love electric.  Here is the local review............

Review | Low Anthem at the Record Bar
By TIMOTHY FINN

First, to be in this band, apparently you need to play at least four instruments, even if one is the zither or the saw or a flugelhorn or a contraption of small cymbals called the crotales. And you must be prepared to play anything with a bow, including a banjo. Or the crotales. And if the setlist calls for it, you should be ready to jump quickly from the drums to the pump organ and then onto the standup bass.

Second, the crowd of about 100, give or take a dozen (the place was about half-full), deserves some rowdy applause for not making much noise during the band's 75-minute set (give or take a few minutes). During one song, it was so quiet you could hear an ice cube drop into a bourbon glass.

Third, every once in a while you go to a show with high expectations and they are redeemed, even exceeded.

All of the above happened at the Low Anthem show at the Record Bar on Monday.

The Low Anthem is a quartet from Providence, R.I., that issues a music that is country and folk at its base. But calling it a folk band is like calling the Rev. Howard Finster a cartoonist. Theirs is a ambient folk, pointillist folk – dreamy, hymnal, funereal, elegiac. Most of the time they live up to their name, that is until they plug in and become a hard-hitting electric Delta/country blues band, like they did on "Home I'll Never Be," one of the rowdier moments of the night: a maelstrom of splashy drums, blues harp, electric guitar and bass and declarative vocals, with harmonies.

They opened with "Ghost Women Blues," the lead track on "Smart Flesh," their latest album. It would be just another handsome, plaintive folk ballad if not for the voice of Ben Knox Miller, which can sound of the '60s and the Gaslight Cafe or of somewhere country and Southern, far from bright lights and big cities; and if not for the clarinet/trumpet duet that arises and then fades in the middle of the song, which sways gently at a pace of about 30 beats per minute.

The clarinetist is Jocie Adams, and before her night was done, she would also play the crotales (with a bow), the zither, the electric bass, the banjo (with a bow) and take over lead vocals a few time. She is not the only multi-tasker in the band; she's just the most conspicuous. Miller, too, played several; so did the other two band members, Mike Irwin and Jeff Prystowsky.

All night the foursome traded instruments and positions on the stage, but not once did it affect the band's trademark sound, which, at times, gets so hushed and gentle it requires complete silence from its audience. This evening, the crowd obliged.

For their attention and silence (and generous applause), they were rewarded with several transcendent moments: "Sally, Where'd You Get Your Liquor From," "Matter of Time," "Apothecary Love." At one point, a French horn made an appearance. So did a flugelhorn.

They broke the hypnotic spell with the clamorous "Boeing 737," but returned to a prolonged dream state, closing the show with more country/folk reverie: "Love and Altar," in which Miller does his best Bon Iver falsetto, "This God Damn House" and two of the loveliest ballads you'll ever hear: "To Ohio," which was lathered with soul-stirring harmonies, and "Charlie Darwin," the tracks that open their break-out album, "Oh My God, Charlie Darwin."

Only one other thing really needs to be said about Monday evening's Low Anthem show at the Record Bar: It was rewarding to be in a room with people who genuinely appreciated music and a band that deserved all the attention and appreciation it received.


Setlist: Ghost Woman Blues; Matter of Time; To the Ghosts Who Write History Books; Sally, Where'd You Get Your Liquor From; Ticket Taker; Evangeline; Apothecary Love; Home I'll Never Be; Boeing 737; To Ohio; Love and Altar; This God Damn House; Charlie Darwin.

[buster douglas]

Did they do the bit where they ask the audience to take out their phones and call the person they came with and hold their phones together?
The feedback loop was crazy... can't believe I've never tried that before.

Great band.

[chaqueta sucia]

Did they do the bit where they ask the audience to take out their phones and call the person they came with and hold their phones together?
The feedback loop was crazy... can't believe I've never tried that before.

Great band.

They did not but Ben Knox Miller did use two phones on a mic himself that gave off the same effect during one of their last songs.  Funny 3 years before I saw the Gin Blossoms do the same thing at a free concert........a little bit of difference I would say between the two bands ;D