Do the new blogging rules mean I have to tell y’all this? Anyway: Kristin from Warner/Atlantic/Elektra very kindly guest-listed me for the show last night; Southeastern Camera in Raleigh supplied the camera body (that was at a cost to me, at least) as Six is still in Long Island.
I’ve talked before about the Low Anthem’s Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, which in addition to having the second best album title of the year (Ha Ha Tonka’s Novel Sounds of the Nouveau South wins that award) is one of the hands down best releases of 2009. It’s a phenomenal album from start to finish, full of strange and lovely sounds, and lyrics that occasionally catch me and stop me in my tracks, and they’re just as fantastic live.
I saw them headline the 506 in August, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to see them again last night. The wonder of this band: the crowd appeared to mostly be there for Blind Pilot (whose set I bailed on, because I am old and grumpy), but the Low Anthem kept them silent and fascinated for the first 3/4ths of their set, which was mostly comprised of their quieter stuff — “To the Ghosts”, “Cage the Songbird”, “Ticket Taker”, a heartbreakingly lovely version of “This God Damn House”, the last of which I’ve had on repeat for days now. And to me, that’s the sign of a good band: Chapel Hill crowds are notoriously chatty, and the Low Anthem silenced a crowd that was visibly unfamiliar with their music.
And then at the end, they busted out the electric guitars and ripped through “Home I’ll Never Be” and a cover of “Don’t Let Nobody Turn You Around”, and closed with a wailin’ 2/3rds tempo bluesy arrangement of “The Horizon Is A Beltway”, which absolutely killed. I will sell my non-existent first born for a recorded version of that new arrangement; “Horizon” is my favorite track on the album and this version is destroying.
One of my favorite things about seeing and shooting the Low Anthem live is the breadth of weird instruments they bring to the stage; they play some things I don’t even have names for, as well as things I can name but that you don’t often see on stage with an indie rock band, and they’re fascinating, both visually and sonically.
brand new kind of photography 