The sounds of reverb and delay on Al's fender telecaster.

Mimi's droning beat of sparse snare and cymbal.

Zak's one note cadence.

Then the voices.

Sweet, scary and sad all at once.

This performance was an experience. Playing tracks off of both CDs plus outtakes and Joy Division's Transmission, Low's set didn't require patience, it required understanding. Although many assholes at Emo's were oblivious to the event at hand, many were standing in amazement, some were sitting on the floor and some were entranced with eyes closed. Al played with some urgency but it was quixotic. He pouted and twitched his face in concentration. He eyed the crowd and batted his eyes about. He would nod as if some being was talking to him. Zak was only facing Al, his back to the audience, concentrating on the chord changes either by habit or fear he would fuck up the beauty they were all creating. Mimi merely stood up, hunched a little and tapped out the simplistic beat. She only raised her head to sing with her soft, haunting voice.

When "Turn," the first song, was over the crowd roared. Th e sound mix was a bit disruptive to the band, they couldn't hear they're monitors and Al intermittently called out to the sound man to fix the levels. Am ong the favorites played were "Lazy" loosely based on Al's younger sister Sarah, "Words" and "Shame" off they're new CD.

Applause was steady until the end when the crowd broke out in applause and yelled for an encore. It was given. A drumless, slower version of "Caroline" was put together and finally Al said, "Let's play the crappiest pop song we have."

They played a well recieved "Throw out the Line" then "Sea" and the audience was satisfied.

Low later played at Waterloo Records in Austin and at the Carma Cafe in Denton the following day. Mesquite, Texas based Comet opened up for them with a short, but impressive show.

omar i. rodriguez writing for applesauce magazine.
vangogh@panam.edu

(Omar's interview)