As Low walk on stage, there’s the usual air of anticipation from fans, but with it a sense of tentative concern. How is this band of two married Minnesotans and a bassist, on a spacious stage, going to recreate the crushed concentration of an album like Hey What – a continuation of the experimental distortion of sound that surprised fans and critics on its predecessor, 2018’s Double Negative?
Beginning with the stop-start staccato of Hey What’s opener White Horses, any such thoughts soon fall away. Dressed in black, guitarist Alan Sparhawk and drummer Mimi Parker, alongside Liz Draper who has replaced the band’s previous bassist Steve Garrington on tour, unleash a sustained, charged ambient cacophony that settles on the reverent crowd. Playing Hey What in almost its entirety, keening riffs and thundering drums recreate the techno distortions of the studio album. Silhouetting the musicians are three pillars of horizontal lights, like tall windows with venetian blinds through which branches, cars and streetlights appear. “I’m awake / Must be another day,” sings Sparhawk on I Can Wait, as a mood of desperation takes hold.
