The Low Anthem

I) Album

It was back in December that the Low Anthem announced, as bands are wont to do these days, a pre-release sale on their upcoming album. And as a fan, I ordered it: A copy of "Smart Flesh" on vinyl, including a free copy of the CD and a tour poster signed by the band. It was scheduled to be delivered on the album's release date, this past Tuesday.

So when this past Tuesday came and went without an LP-sized package appearing on my porch, I was perplexed. When this past Thursday came and went without an LP-sized package appearing on my porch, I was concerned. I called the post office. No package waiting. I checked my paypal account. The payment had cleared. So I emailed the band.

As it turned out, it was not the band's fault that my record had not arrived. Whether through a fluke of internet recordkeeping, or through a fluke of my subconscious, my record had been shipped to a previous address. Not my college address, or my parents' house in Allentown, but the address of my childhood home in Treichlers.

Treichlers is a small enough town that Google does not have enough Street View data to process images for the Arcade Fire's recent music video experiment. "Smart Flesh" is not particularly an album about childhood or rural America, but I still find it touching that it went to Treichlers, where an old neighbor had to pick it up at the post office, mail delivery not being a service offered in Treichlers.


II) Concert

On Friday, I was still in the dark as to the status of my record, but that didn't stop me from going to Philadelphia to see the Low Anthem play at the First Unitarian Church. 

First Unitarian sanctuary, from the stage/altar.

Those who follow this blog will remember my having thrown down the gauntlet to the Low Anthem with regards to a concert by David Wax Museum; namely: "Top this, or relinquish favorite-band status." While I find such terms as "favorite band" to be sometimes unnecessarily reductive, I have, in the past, espoused the virtue of picking favorites.

Ultimately, it didn't matter. Though I doubt that they follow the blog, the Low Anthem brought it all into the Unitarian church: pump organ, crotales, jaw harp, banjo, violin, guitars (electric and acoustic), basses (electric and acoustic), musical saw, clarinet, shakers (made of pill bottles), trumpet, dulcimer, and a drum kit (with a huge concert bass, rather than a traditional kit bass, rigged to the pedal). They also brought a level of musical sophistication that David Wax Museum (sorry, y'all) has no way of matching.

Not my photo; not from the show I saw.

 The Low Anthem took their own songs apart and put them back together in new ways. Most notable for me was "Home I'll Never Be," a Kerouac poem recorded as a rock ballad on "Oh My God Charlie Darwin" and performed as a tender lament with four-part vocal harmony and a banjo on Friday. They opened, as they did this past fall in Harrisburg, crowded around a single mic to sing "Ghost Woman Blues." They turned into a full-fledged rock-and-roll band for a few tunes off of "Smart Flesh." They performed the song as they perform all their songs: with a sincerity so full and powerful that it always, no matter how many times a song has been heard, live or recorded, overwhelms this listener.

Favorite band status successfully defended, Low Anthem. Keep up the good work.

III) Notes

A few things I wanted to mention that just didn't fit in the body of the piece:

- The Low Anthem's openers on this tour are Dan Lefkowitz and Bobby (no link, because, well, have you ever tried searching something as general as "bobby"? and because I want to route no traffic to their site; see below). Lefkowitz is a former member of the Low Anthem, now embarking on a solo career. He joined them onstage for one of their last songs, and the resulting five-part harmony was divine.  Bobby, on the other hand, is trying, but where the Low Anthem's music is tender, powerful, handmade, and expressive, Bobby's is cluttered, forced, and grating. They are experimenting with new things, their beats are danceable, their vocal harmonies are beautiful, but in this writer's opinion, they really shouldn't be on this tour.
 - Tom Waits also does a version of "Home I'll Never Be". I'm not sure if they're similar enough for the Low Anthem's "Charlie Darwin" recording of the song to be considered a cover or a new song.
 - I bought a t-shirt, making this the first time I've bought a band t-shirt since high school. It has a ship on it.
 - Recent articles about the Low Anthem can be read here and here.