My dad is a Christmas music obsessive. I think he has nearly as many Christmas CDs as secular CDs, and he picks up a few more every December. So, of course, he recently pulled out his box of seasonal discs to fill the house with holiday cheer... to mixed results. But that's just the nature of the beast; holiday music is nothing if not a mixed bag . On the one hand, I would be hard pressed to think of a melody more beautiful than "The Holly and the Ivy" or more classic than "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." But on the other end of the spectrum are those dreaded compilations of adult contemporary artists tossing something off half-heartedly between glasses of eggnog, without the slightest hint of effort or sincerity.
To save myself from the mediocrity, and to keep my inner-Scrooge at bay, I only have to turn to the beloved Duluth trio, Low. Their 1999 Christmas EP approaches the holiday with warmth, sincerity, levity and a sense of spirituality completely unmatched by any other contemporary Christmas music I've heard. Saturday evening they put on a charming show, playing all of the EP material as well as a couple of holiday surprises and a generous portion of new songs from their forthcoming LP Drums and Guns. They were certainly in the generous holiday spirit as well -- the show served as a fundraiser to help build a school in Kenya.
Starting off the evening were local rockers Fog, led by guitarist Andrew Broder. They played a set of spiky, punkish rock accentuated with some impressive guitar freak-outs by Broder. Towards the end of their set, they brought Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker of Low onstage to sing with them on a country-tinged rocker from Fog's forthcoming new album. The four-part harmony filled out Fog's sparse sound nicely, and the tune was the highlight of the set.
Low started their own set unassumingly with a tentative rendition of the very sweet "One Special Gift" from the Christmas EP. They soon dug in, though, as they began to unveil several songs from Drums and Guns. As far as I could tell, every song they played between the first two songs and the Christmas set was from the new album. I had heard a couple of the tunes before at free shows this summer, and hearing them again confirmed that they were as good as I'd remembered them being. The songs were unmistakably Low, but they had a remarkable sense of freshness to them for being so immediately familiar. It brought to mind British DJ John Peel's famous assessment of The Fall -- "Always the same, always different."
For 12 years now, Low have subtly explored various permutations of their singular aesthetic, discreetly adding new elements while maintaining their inimitable personality. For example, one of the new songs featured a sampled drum beat and sustained organ chords, but the mood and melody were exactly what a Low fan would expect. Hearing these slight recontextualizations is thrilling -- Low paints with very fine strokes, so even the slightest deviation makes itself noticed. Other highlights of the new material were "Violent Past" and the sublime "Dragonfly," both of which featured the kind of achingly beautiful harmonies we have come to expect from Low. "Dragonfly," in particular, was a highlight, one of the few Low originals that shows off their subtle sense of humor. But it also has a sense of foreboding and surrender to it that makes it a very complex little song indeed.
Once they had gotten me thoroughly pumped for the forthcoming album, Low were joined by four other musicians from the band No Wait Wait. With this expanded lineup (a full drum set, keyboards, pedal steel and violin) they played through a Christmas set that included all of their EP material. "Just Like Christmas" was a natural highlight -- it is Low at their straightforward poppiest, but Mimi Parker's restrained vocals and steady sleigh bell playing kept things interesting.
She also nailed their cover of "Blue Christmas," capturing the sentiment of the song while avoiding its sentimentality. There were some humorous moments as well, with Sparhawk performing some grade-school Christmas Pageant-worthy choreography to one tune -- he just pointed to every body part that the song referred to ("Every EYE shall see, and every EAR shall hear"). Another bit of levity was a silly rendition of "Santa's Coming Over" that was just completely over the top. These moments served as great foils to more serious songs like "If You Were Born Today," which imagines a modern-day Christ child being killed by age eight, and the brooding wisemen ballad "Long Way Around the Sea." The set ended on a high point with an energetic cover of John Lennon's classic "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" -- whether it was a reaction to the anniversary of Lennon's death the day prior was unclear.
After a short break, Low came back with the expanded line-up for an encore and played the only two "classic" Low songs of the evening -- "Silver Rider" and "July." The crowd was glad to hear some familiar material, but after a set of such consistent quality it would have been hard to be disappointed. They sent us off with one more burst of Christmas spirit -- an intoxicating take on "Little Drummer Boy" that was very much akin to the version on their EP. At the beginning of the song some (ostensibly) drunk guy yelled out "Yeeeeeaaaaah!" as if they had just launched into "Highway to Hell" or some such arena staple. I was reminded of the strangeness of a Christmas rock show, and began to picture the crowd lifting lighters and chanting "Parump a pum PUM! Parump a pum PUM!"
I would have done it.
