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Rating: Like a ritual that repeats itself without losing the original splendor, the Italian audience had the opportunity (actually, three!) in this new season to meet and listen to the three beating hearts of Minnesota, known as Low.
In reality, it was not a continuation of the same season and not a second round, as the dates were part of the same tour, supporting the band's latest album "led" by Alan Sparhawk: "Double Negative," an album highly appreciated by critics and fans, which for me is more touching and effective live compared to the studio version, suffocated by excessively processed electronic-noise.
Live, the strength of Low lies in their ability to burn, within an hour and a half (if not less), like a flame that dances sometimes gracefully, sometimes violently, only to rise again the next evening from the ashes, like a phoenix: a three-headed phoenix, in this case. Not that I could attend every performance (at least the Italian ones), but I infer this from the two "encounters" I've had with them. Like a year ago (at Teatro dal Verme in Milan), Low demonstrated great integrity and, at the same time, fragility, a perfect combination of minds and hearts as they are.
The Sala Sinopoli of the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome – on the evening of April 8th just passed – hosted an enchanting sabbath of notes and images that, for me, was unprecedented.
In Milan, the stage was entirely bare, whereas in the Urbe, the band wanted, behind them, three tall video panels upon which, as the instruments weaved their essential arabesque, evocative images reflecting the spirit of the songs played: trees (in "Quorum," a piece that opens consistently every concert of the "Double Negative Tour"), and then an eye, a flame, a clock, a ballerina, railways, mountains, tombstones, etc.
Moreover, this time, they didn't have a band/artist as an opener (in Milan, they were preceded by the young Lebanese singer-songwriter Nadine Khouri), but they started their set just fifteen minutes after the start time (9:00 PM), without mediation.
Another difference is that, despite an encore, the overall duration of the concert was less than my expectations: fewer arrows in the quiver.
However... there is a however! The setlist presented some interesting variations: some songs were presented in a different order (e.g., "Always Up," "No Comprende," and "Holy Ghost"), some were added (e.g., "What Part of Me" from "Ones and Sixes" of 2015, and "Especially Me" from "C’Mon" of 2011), at the expense of others (e.g., "The Innocents" also from "Ones and Sixes," and "Dragonfly" from "Drums and Guns" of 2007).
Fortunately, the fiery "Do You Know How To Waltz?" remained, culminating, like in a medley, with "Lazy," from the band's first masterpiece, one of my three favorite albums of the nineties: "I Could Live in Hope," from '94.
Mimi Parker, singer and drummer, wife of Sparhawk, represented, yesterday as the day before, a year ago as twenty-five years ago, the heartbeat: it is she who gives the propulsive push, creating, along with bassist Steve Garrington, the skeletal structure of the songs, divided between childlike sweetness and ancestral violence, completed by the strings plucked or beaten by her husband. For Low, Parker means what Maureen Tucker meant for the Velvet Underground, to whom the three from Duluth often refer, in terms of experimentation and the aforementioned contrast of sweetness and severity ("Drella," Andy Warhol's nickname, resulting from the fusion of Dracula and Cinderella, exemplifies it all).
Despite not having sold out all the Italian dates (only in Bologna on April 6th), the trio gathered a significant audience, which responded well to the "positive" energy (and it seems like an oxymoron on paper!) transmitted by their strings (vocal, bass guitar) and their skins (drum). So well that, as happened in Milan last fall, in Rome, the band offered an intense encore as a reward for the great warmth felt by us spectators. Strangely, during the previous two dates (in Padua and Bologna) – according to what emerges from the site www.setlist.fm – the band played fewer songs. Was the audience perhaps a bit chilly? Maybe in every audience, there needs to be someone like me to act as “shouter,” as support, as a groupie. The fact is, I had the privilege of enjoying both encores that Low offered in this 2018-2019 biennium.
Although the first time always remains the first time, this round I found the energy I needed and knew would not be lacking from the band, which I recommend you see while you can.
Would I see them again? Would I go as far as Rome or Milan to "try" them a third time? Perhaps not... but in my heart and mind, the memories, indelible, and the experiences relived in my imagination, remain and will always remain.
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