{"id":1243,"date":"2008-09-22T22:39:48","date_gmt":"2008-09-23T02:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/?p=1243"},"modified":"2022-10-26T11:15:27","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T15:15:27","slug":"low-live-at-mercury-lounge-new-york-september-22-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/low-live-at-mercury-lounge-new-york-september-22-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"Low live at Mercury Lounge, New York – September 22, 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I hope I’m totally wrong, but I picked up on a few hints that this latest tour by Low might mark the end of the band. My half-baked evidence:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Alan Sparhawk seems to be having success with new side project, the Retribution Gospel Choir.<\/li>
  2. This tour is not in support of a new album release.<\/li>
  3. The shows were marketed as “An Evening With Low,” lingo for shows with no opening acts. Pitchfork reported<\/a> that Low would be playing extra-long sets.<\/li>
  4. Sparhawk himself told the Mercury Lounge audience to settle in for a long night, and ominously said a “retrospective” show is like the proverbial “nail in the coffin.”<\/li>
  5. Bassist Matt Livingston has left the band after a relatively short tenure, replaced by Steve Garrington.<\/li>
  6. David Kleijwgt’s 2008 documentary You May Need a Murderer<\/em><\/a> had a notably more frank and final tone compared to the 2004 Low in Europe<\/em><\/a>. Could Low be preparing their legacy?<\/li>
  7. I read later that on September 13, at the End of the Road Festival in Dorset, Sparhawk flung his guitar into the crowd<\/a>. As seen in You May Need a Murderer<\/em>, Sparkhawk has some issues with his mental health. Whether it was an act of rage or elation remains an object of debate online.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Like I said, I hope I’m wrong, and one of my favorite bands will continue on. Recent albums The Great Destroyer<\/em> and Drums & Guns<\/em> were both great leaps forward, and as a listener I see no reason why the band can’t keep evolving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Some little anecdotes of the evening:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. The first half of the set was acoustic (albeit using an array of electronic devices), and Sparhawk switched to an electric guitar for the second half. Garrington used an upright acoustic bass throughout.<\/li>
    2. Mimi Parker stated that the evening’s rendition of “Dragonfly” could have been called “Dragging-fly” Sparhawk agreed, admitting it was a “Extra Dragging-fly.”<\/li>
    3. Low debuted a sequel to their classic Low Christmas EP<\/em>: “Santa’s Coming Over,” soon to be released<\/a> on vinyl and digitally. Its the first example of self-parody by Low that I’m aware of. The Low Christmas EP<\/em> is actually somberly beautiful, but in “Santa is Coming” Sparhawk sings patently silly lyrics in full doom-and-gloom melodramatic slowcore style. Perhaps I should have filed this note in my list of “half-baked evidence” above…<\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      I hope I’m totally wrong, but I picked up on a few hints that this latest tour by Low might mark the end of the band. My half-baked evidence: Alan Sparhawk seems to be having success with new side project, the Retribution Gospel Choir. This tour is not in support of a new album release. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,13],"tags":[196,195,199,198,98,200,197],"class_list":["post-1243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-4-stars","category-music","tag-alan-sparhawk","tag-low","tag-mercury-lounge","tag-mimi-parker","tag-rock","tag-slowcore","tag-steve-garrington"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/low-mercury-2008.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa9lhB-k3","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":801,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/low-in-europe\/","url_meta":{"origin":1243,"position":0},"title":"Sebastian Schrade’s tour documentary Low in Europe","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"May 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I came late to appreciating Low, but they have since become one of my favorite bands. I was vaguely aware that trainspotting music critics had christened a genre to categorize bands like Low: slowcore, the distinguishing characteristics of which being playing very quietly and slowly. An overgeneralization, it turns out,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "3 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Low in Europe","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/low-in-europe-studio.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/low-in-europe-studio.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/low-in-europe-studio.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/low-in-europe-studio.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/low-in-europe-studio.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":896,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/low-you-may-need-a-murderer\/","url_meta":{"origin":1243,"position":1},"title":"Low get political in David Kleijwegt’s You May Need a Murderer","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"June 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"It may seem overkill for the so-called slowcore band Low to be the subject of another documentary feature film only a mere four years after Low in Europe, but it must be because they're just so interesting. Filmmaker David Kleijwegt's You May Need a Murderer could just as well be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "3 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"You May Need a Murderer","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/low-you-may-need-a-murderer-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/low-you-may-need-a-murderer-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/low-you-may-need-a-murderer-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/low-you-may-need-a-murderer-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/low-you-may-need-a-murderer-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":792,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/the-musical-box-highline-ballroom-new-york\/","url_meta":{"origin":1243,"position":2},"title":"The Musical Box recreates Genesis’ Black Show at Highline Ballroom, New York","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"May 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Musical Box is a Canadian group that stages elaborate recreations of entire concerts given by the English progressive rock band Genesis in the early 1970s. They perform closely-observed note-for-note cover versions of the original songs, in the original set list order, with full recreations of the set design, props,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "4 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"4 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/4-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Denis Gagn\u00e9 of The Musical Box","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/musical-box-flower.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/musical-box-flower.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/musical-box-flower.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/musical-box-flower.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/musical-box-flower.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1434,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/daniel-lanois-here-is-what-is\/","url_meta":{"origin":1243,"position":3},"title":"Daniel Lanois Maximizes the Room in Here Is What Is","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"January 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Daniel Lanois is a unique musician, as gifted a singer-songwriter in his own right as he is a collaborator and producer. I originally came to recognize his name after finding it listed in the credits of many key items in my music collection, including Peter Gabriel's So and Us, U2's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "3 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/daniel-lanois-here-is-what-is-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/daniel-lanois-here-is-what-is-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/daniel-lanois-here-is-what-is-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/daniel-lanois-here-is-what-is-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/daniel-lanois-here-is-what-is-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":732,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/the-commitments\/","url_meta":{"origin":1243,"position":4},"title":"The World’s Hardest Working Band, The Commitments","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"March 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Commitments remains a favorite, even some 17 years after first seeing it in the theater. 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