Who: Low, Emerald City
Where: Kings Arms
KEY POINTS:
It's the sound clash between art and commerce - as another of Low's misty songs unfurls, another beer bottle hits the bin behind the bar. The crashing glass is momentarily distracting, and sure encourages punters to order pints instead.
Well, that's if they can pull themselves away from the low-decibel trio's hypnotic blend of voices, guitar, bass and a drumkit so minimal you wonder if the airline lost of the rest of it in transit.
The Minnesota band of husband and wife Alan Sparhawk (vocals, guitar) and Mimi Parker (drums) and bassist Matt Livingston have been talking it slow and soft for more than a decade.
Their first New Zealand show came after last year's Drums and Guns which their set mainly drew from with a few digs back into the previous six albums which got them christened "slowcore".
Live that stately pace and hushed delivery is at first unsettling, not helped by the crowded pub - whoops there goes another bottle - setting.
But like their albums, it's the quiet precision of the music and the intriguing lyrics - many of Drums of Guns songs meditates on violence in such a restrained fashion, it's unsettling - that draws you in.
For the most part the music pulsates without embellishment, a brushed drum there, a two-note bassline there, a guitar that sounds as if it's been played a couple of rooms away or down a well - though when Sparhawk briefly wigs out on his instrument and starts shouting into his pick-ups it's unnerving.
But most of Low's power comes from Sparhawk and Parker's voices. Their harmonies intertwine like a de-countrified Gram Parsons Emmylou Harris. And while they might sound downcast in their songs, they prove a funny engaging pair between numbers - "we only have three and half songs," quips Sparhawk, "just the words change."
That may well be, but it's enough to make Low that rarest of live rock event - one where your ears thank for you for the experience afterward.
Though the old lugs certainly get a good workout with local openers band Emerald City. They have five on stage, a couple more below on the floor and they play a barmy mix of Eastern and Indo-influenced psychedelic instrumental rock complete with face paint, sitar, violin, a couple of guitarists in love their echo units, much percussion and occasional belly dancer.
They were startling, if over-reaching themselves a little rhythmically and lacking a little punch deep down. Still, when they hit Womad in March with all those influences, they're going to come on like world music punk rock.
