I hope I’m totally wrong, but I picked up on a few hints that this lat­est tour by Low might mark the end of the band. My half-baked evidence:

1. Alan Sparhawk seems to be hav­ing suc­cess with new side project, the Ret­ri­bu­tion Gospel Choir.
2. This tour is not in sup­port of a new album release.
3. The shows were mar­keted as “An Evening With Low,” lingo for shows with no open­ing acts. Pitch­fork reported that Low would be play­ing extra-long sets.
4. Sparhawk him­self told the Mer­cury Lounge audi­ence to set­tle in for a long night, and omi­nously said a “ret­ro­spec­tive” show is like the prover­bial “nail in the coffin.”
5. Bassist Matt Liv­ingston has left the band after a rel­a­tively short tenure, replaced by Steve Garrington.
6. David Kleijwgt’s 2008 doc­u­men­tary You May Need a Mur­derer (read The Dork Report review) had a notably more frank and final tone com­pared to the 2004 Low in Europe (read The Dork Report review). Could Low be prepar­ing their legacy?
7. I read later that on Sep­tem­ber 13, at the End of the Road Fes­ti­val in Dorset, Sparhawk flung his gui­tar into the crowd. As seen in You May Need a Mur­derer, Sparkhawk has some issues with his men­tal health. Whether it was an act of rage or ela­tion remains an object of debate online.

Like I said, I hope I’m wrong, and one of my favorite bands will con­tinue on. Recent albums The Great Destroyer and Drums & Guns were both great leaps for­ward, and as a lis­tener I see no rea­son why the band can’t keep evolving.

Alan Sparhawk & Steve Gar­ring­ton live at Mer­cury Lounge, NY (I could barely see Mimi Parker from where I was standing)

Some lit­tle anec­dotes of the evening:

1. The first half of the set was acoustic (albeit using an array of elec­tronic devices), and Sparhawk switched to an elec­tric gui­tar for the sec­ond half. Gar­ring­ton used an upright acoustic bass throughout.
2. Mimi Parker stated that the evening’s ren­di­tion of “Drag­on­fly” could have been called “Dragging-fly” Sparhawk agreed, admit­ting it was a “Extra Dragging-fly.”
3. Low debuted a sequel to their clas­sic Low Christ­mas EP: “Santa’s Com­ing Over,” soon to be released on vinyl and dig­i­tally. Its the first exam­ple of self-parody by Low that I’m aware of. The Low Christ­mas EP is actu­ally somberly beau­ti­ful, but in “Santa is Com­ing” Sparhawk sings patently silly lyrics in full doom-and-gloom melo­dra­matic slow­core style. Per­haps I should have filed this note in my list of “half-baked evi­dence” above…

Alan Sparhawk & Steve Gar­ring­ton live at Mer­cury Lounge, NY (I could barely see Mimi Parker from where I was standing)

Offi­cial Low site: www.chairkickers.com

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