MINNEAPOLIS — With singer/drummer Mimi Parker riding out cancer treatment, Duluth rock stalwarts Low have canceled their fall tour dates with Death Cab for Cutie.
"Mim is in a pretty fragile state and it's just not possible to perform or travel for now," Parker's husband and bandmate Alan Sparhawk posted on Low's Twitter feed, after also canceling their gig this weekend at the Primavera Sound Los Angeles festival. "Very sorry."
Another veteran indie-rock act, Thao Nguyen of Thao & the Get Down Stay Down, will stand in for Low at most of the dates on the DCFC tour. Warpaint stepped up to fill in at Primavera Sound. Death Cab for Cutie posted on its feed, "We're so sad to say that @lowtheband will no longer be joining us on our upcoming tour & we're sending Mimi healing thoughts."
Parker revealed in a January interview with the syndicated public radio show "Sheroes" that she had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer in December 2020. The band returned to the road in 2022 to promote its widely acclaimed album, "Hey What," playing big Midwest gigs this summer at Rock the Garden and the Pitchfork Music Festival as well as a spring trek across Europe. Last month, though, Low canceled a batch of early autumn dates in Europe.
By all accounts, Parker and Sparhawk sounded as riveting as ever when they performed very close to home at last weekend's Water Is Life Festival in Bayfront Festival Park with the Indigo Girls and Ani DiFranco. The band still has more European dates on the books for November as well as West Coast U.S. shows booked next March.
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