I attended the Low show in Los Angeles last weekend, March 3, and was able to interview Alan Sparhawk, singer/guitarist, the next afternoon for a few minutes. I’m a huge fan of Low, so I probably came off as rather enthusiastic (and somewhat awkward), but I managed to get some interesting comments out of him.

The show was at the Troubadour in Hollywood, which is a good venue for quiet shows. I got there early to stake out a good stage spot so I could get some pictures. On the way there I thought about how I’d never met a casual Low fan. They all seem very diehard. However, I met my first casual fans at this show. I happened to be standing next to a man and a woman who’d never seen them before. He really liked what he’d heard of them, but she wasn’t sold yet. He asked me what they were like live, hoping to get her excited for it. I had to think about it for a few moments. “I’d say they’re…intense.” They both said, “Oooh, intense is good!”

The truth is, for someone not familiar with them, Low can be odd. Their shows are quiet. So quiet, there were times I thought the clicking of my camera was too loud. Their music is slow. You have to switch gears for Low. You have to let go, and take it all in at their pace.

The opening act was Damien Jurado, a singer/songwriter from Seattle. I’d never seen him before, but have wanted to for awhile. He had a drummer and a celloist, plus him on acoustic guitar. He played a good set, he’s worth checking out.

I’d been intending to meet up with someone who was going to lend me his wife’s D-SLR camera, but the place was packed. Sold out crowd. I’d resigned myself to just using my usual camera when suddenly a security guard came up to me from the stage with a bright yellow camera bag. AND a bottle of water! I looked over, and there was my friend Alric giving me a thumbs up sign from the side of the stage.

So, I was all set. Low came out promptly and launched into a great setlist that included:

“Dragonfly” is probably my new favorite Low song. I was really happy to see them play “Silver Rider,” another fave. And ecstatic to see them do “Whore.” I was disappointed we didn’t get “When I Go Deaf” or “I am the Lamb.” But “Pissing,” one of my faves from their recent album, The Great Destroyer, was awesome. Alan really got into it.

At one point, an audience member got vocal about something, and Alan joked about having him thrown out. Later, during the encore, Alan asked if there were any requests, or if anyone had anything they wanted to ask for–advice, or maybe take the opportunity to say something in front of their peers…Just joking around. Someone called out, “What is a vegetable?” Alan started asking us for the definition of a vegetable versus a fruit, and called on the young woman standing behind me with her arm raised. She said, “Fruits have seeds!” Alan said something like, “So a squash is a fruit?” It was entertaining.

They played a few songs by request, which to me is awesome. I’ve seen hundreds of bands, and I’m always the most impressed with bands who are willing to play–and ask for–requests. It shows both a regard for their audience and a willingness to be vulnerable–to attempt songs they may not have played in a long time and may not be able to pull off. Of course, they can always disregard the requests they’re not prepared to play, but it’s alway seems like an adventurous journey when bands ask for requests.

The last time I saw Low, Mimi was ill and couldn’t sing. This time, her voice was in fine shape, and it was wonderful. Along with the quiet intensity of their music, and how their songs build to wonderful crescendos, their vocal harmonies are what I love about Low.

Oh, and the new bass player did a good job, I thought. He was a quiet presence on stage, unobstrusive. I don’t know if that’s his normal demeanor or if he’s still finding his footing within the band–but it’s not like Low is really given to any sort of stage antics, anyway.

Because of the quiet intensity of their shows, Low is one of my favorite bands to see live. I can’t recommend them highly enough. The couple next to me? They loved it.

If you’d like to hear and see a few tidbits of the show, I took a couple videoclips with my digital camera. You can download them by right-clicking on the links below and clicking on “Save target as…” or “Save link as…” (And watch your volume–they’re loud.)

“Silver Rider” (24 MB – 42 seconds)
“Murderer” (24 MB – 42 seconds)

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Interview with Alan Sparhawk
March 4, 2006
By Susan Malmrose

ALAN: Shoot. Whenever you’re ready.

SM: OK. How is the tour going?

ALAN: Pretty good. We’re kind of in the middle of the second of three stretches we’re doing. We used to do three to four weeks at a time, we’re kind of cutting it back to two, two and a half. Give us all some time in between at home, to be at home and stuff. And be healthy.

SM: I was at the show last night in LA, and it occured to me as I was heading there that I’ve never actually met any casual Low fans. Your fans seem to be pretty diehard fans.

ALAN: Yeah, they’re pretty hard core. This is the second time we’ve come to town on this record, so I think a lot of people that came last night are people who would definitely come to see us as many times as they could. When the record’s out, and there’s a little more on the radio, people are sort of talking about the record and stuff, you get a little bit more of a mixed crowd. People who are really hardcore, and then the people who are just sort of casually there because they heard about the record or something.

SM: I was talking to some people there that had never seen you before, and I was wondering if your fan base has changed over the years. Do you find it growing more now, or does it kind of wax and wane?

ALAN: I don’t know. It kind of is always changing. I was surprised to see some–well, not surprised, I guess, but….I kind of, before we went on, I was looking up into that balcony, it’s weird–I don’t know, it’s not very often you get to actually really look at the audience, it’s just–it was strange last night. [Laughs]

SM: Have you played the Troubadour before?

ALAN: Yeah, we used to play there–it’s probably been about 5 or 6 years. Yeah, it’s a generally pretty good place to play, the stage is comfortable. The sound is pretty good there. It’s a cool place to play.

SM: Do you have any favorite venues or favorite cities you like to play?

ALAN: Yeah, I mean there’s different places that are a lot better. I think some of my favorite places are–I don’t know if you’ve ever been to the Great American Music Hall or the Bluebird Theater in Denver. Those are really great places. Let’s see, the El Rey–I like that. The El Rey is nice–I don’t know, the El Rey is a little strange, it’s not the best sound on stage…I mean favorite places are usually the ones where you feel like the audience is in a comfortable place, and the band is comfortable. You can hear what you’re doing on stage, and feel like you can be spontaneous, or adventurous, or you know–you can be spontaneous and a little more attentive to subtleties. It becomes more than just kind of playing guitar, I guess, at least for us—so that’s a nice place.

SM: That’s cool. You seemed to be enjoying yourself last night. And I was impressed that you asked for requests, is that something you do a lot?

ALAN: Um, people really–people just request. Usually about halfway through the set, people start yelling for songs. You know, it ends up being a semi-awkward, unprofessional process where (chuckles) you stumble through, figure out which songs we want to play, I don’t know. It’s uh, it’s–yeah, I think–I don’t know. I don’t mind doing that. I mean, unless it’s a song we just kind of buried into the ground, so many times. I’m up for, you know after this many years playing the same material, sometimes it’s kind of a nice little break in the tension to kind of, ‘well I wonder if we can get through this song when we haven’t played it for years.’ But I don’t know–I don’t think there’s any shame in people calling for songs, we may end up doing some of them.

SM: Well I personally think it makes for a really fun show when that happens.

ALAN: Yeah, yeah, like you said, it was pretty fun. Yeah, people who are really kind of, they’ve seen us a lot, I don’t know. The fans get into it, so I don’t mind.

SM: So you’ve got a couple different legs of this tour coming up, do you have any plans beyond that?

ALAN: Um, we got a few patchy things through the summer. We’re going over to Austraila and England just for some short trips and then a couple festivals. Right now we’re kind of starting the process of working our songs out, seeing what we have, trying to decide what kind of recording we’re going to do and how soon we feel we can do another, stuff like that, so. I think the second half of the year we’re gonna try to stay home. [Laughs]

SM: Do you have any plans to record with any of your side projects?

ALAN: Um, I’d like to do some more recording with Retribution Gospel Choir. There’s, there’s–It’s a pretty um, it’s a band, we’re still figuring out what we’re doing but …I think we’ll try to record a few songs. But I wanna just, I wanna make sure–I don’t know. It’s a rock band, but I don’t wanna just play just basic, like, rock songs.

SM: What music have you been listening to lately?

ALAN: The last year or two I’ve been listening to a lot of dub. It’s not so much that I’m a big—[Alan's cell phone goes out and we get cut off. I dial him back...]

SM: I missed that last bit of what you were saying about what you’ve been listening to lately.

ALAN: Yeah, I was talking about dub. I don’t know a lot about it, but it’s kind of…It’s kind of like music that I’ve always listened for–I don’t know, there’s something going on in that music that…

SM [having trouble understanding him over the static in the phone line]: Did you say dub?

ALAN: Dub. Yeah, Jamaican, King Tubby…

SM: Oh, ok.

ALAN: I don’t know, there’s some things they’re doing that take a lot of…I’m kind of wondering where it came from. Cuz I’ve had this music in my head–it’s kind of been like a certain–in a weird way, it’s been this music that’s been in my head ever since I was a kid, that I just never thought of or put it together–and ‘oh yeah, well all that
is dub.’

SM: Interesting.

ALAN: It’s interesting music to discover or realize rather than just….I don’t know, other than that, I’m not as apt to sit around and listen to a bunch of new stuff as it seemed like I felt like I had to years ago. Every once in awhile something creeps in….I don’t know, it’s hard to keep up. Mim really likes the My Morning Jacket record, which, I don’t know. She’s weird like that. [laughs] She doesn’t like anything, but every once in awhile some record will just kind of creep in. It’s usually pretty rare, though, you know. But, something like Gillian Welch…

SM: If you could co-headline with any band, who would you want to play with?

ALAN: Oh gosh, I don’t know. Um…

SM: I have this dream lineup of you guys, and the Frames, and Calexico.

ALAN: Oh wow. We’ve played with Calexico before, it was really cool. That would be a fun show. I don’t know, I think a lot of people think that having you know, a bunch of bands that are kind of a similar strain, and putting them all on one bill, they think it’d be a good idea. But I don’t know, sometimes I think that’s a bad idea–I guess I’m much more of a, variety’s kind of nice, you know. But I do like those guys, I don’t know–I haven’t heard the Frames thing—-I’ve never met ‘em, so I’m not sure.

SM: Alright, well I don’t want to take up too much of your time.

ALAN: No big deal.

SM: Thanks a lot for the interview.

ALAN: Thanks a lot, and uh, yeah. Thanks for coming to the show. It’s always–not a lot of people actually do that. [Laughs] Listen to the record, or go to the show, and actually know what they’re talking about. That’s cool.

SM: OK, good luck on your tour.

ALAN: Thanks a lot. Thanks for calling. Have a nice weekend.