Low

Andy J Ryan Mar 26, 2023

Low – The Famous Spiegeltent January 17, 2008
The annual Sydney Festival has afforded the emerald city the opportunity to witness a unique array of acts within the historic Spiegeltent.
This is a bit strange, what with all the sunlight and smiling faces.
This song is murderer, its about the decision you make to become one of them. *crowd cheers* it seems we have some murderers in the audience today.
This isn’t the first spiegeltent we’ve played in. We should really get one of these and just tour around and plonk it down in any old park or field
‘its hard enough touring with all the crap we already have’
I hope the seats aren’t too comfortable.
There’s something about standing up that makes things that little bit more exciting. So if you think we are boring its because you are sitting down, not because we are boring.
Singer and guitarist Alan Spearhawk is a little bit Jonathan Creek in his appearance and dress, however a bit more Jonathan Rictman in his demeanour, voice and song-writing nous. He is an intense figure, hunched over his souped-up black and gold Epiphone wringing out seven shades of sparse anguish and beauty from his guitar. His offhanded quips almost an antidote to the confronting intensity of the songs. The band seem to play almost purely intuitively. Spearhawk and drummer Mimi Parker, his wife and mother of two children, in particular share many stolen glances and half smiles and seem magnetically bound to each others musical cues. The great majority of their material are pared back, minimal works yet the intimate surrounds and well oiled festival timetable mean the songs remain reigned in. As the title of their latest album Drums and Guns may suggest, they are equally capable of moments of great musical violence. Spearhawk unloads blistering guitar riffs partnered by an incessantly thudding floor tom and Matt Livingston even manages a few degrees of swaying to his stoic and precise bass rivets that hold everything together.