Low, all the way from chilly Duluth (Minnesota, USA), were probably not anticipating cool weather when they played Brisbane, but lucky they are seasoned travellers and players. The contrast for all those in attendance at Black Bear Lodge couldn’t have been stronger – here’s a cold climate band playing in the sweaty sub tropics.

The band take the Black Bear stage with minimal fuss. In fact, those at the back take a third of a song to realise they’re in action. It’s not long though, till everyone in attendance is hushing up, focusing in on opening tune ‘Gentle’, off the most recent album ‘Ones and Sixes’. Incidentally, it opens said album too, and with its insistent electronic beat and atmospherics, is a great way to kick off the set. Simultaneously, we’re all there in the Duluth cold. ‘No Comprehende’ continues the album tracklist and ratchets things up a notch. From there to the songs ‘The Innocents’, ‘Plastic Cup’ and ‘On My Own’, the latter two from 2013’s ‘The Invisible Way’, the audience gets a real appreciation of what makes this band special. The sublime vocals of husband and wife team Alan Sparhawk (guitar) and Mimi Parker (drums/percussion); the way they alternate taking the lead, harmonise, chime in and out from each other, feels effortless. Sparhawk’s playing is equally of measure, curiously tuned in the open G (like Keith Richards/Bonnie Raitt/Sonic Youth before him). It isn’t conventional playing in the minor key, and the louder playing has a distinct squalor and isolated cold beauty. Parker’s minimalist drumming and third member Steve Garrington’s (bass/keys) anchoring and augmenting of things works just right too. The sequencing of songs is brilliant, and the dynamic of each song works perfectly off the previous one played. Most of the set features material from ‘Ones and Sixes’ and culminates in the excellent ‘Lies’ and ‘Landslide’, but there are tracks from ‘The Great Destroyer’ such as ‘Monkey’ and ‘Pissing’, and the aforementioned album ‘The Invisible Way’. It proves what a great album ‘Ones and Sixes’ is. ‘What Part Of Me’ has a particular earworm effect. “What part of me don’t you know/what part of me don’t you own,” lines from the song’s chorus have the potential to be planted in the subconscious for several days. The encore also features Mimi Parker on soulful lead vocals doing the Al Green classic ‘Let’s Stick Together’. Essentially, it’s a fantastic set, and this for a band that has specialised in writing about discomfort.

Watching any band at the height of their powers though is a joyous experience. It’s made to look easy, but it’s anything but. It’s usually the combination of years playing experience and a collective talent that just works. Low demonstrate tonight how paying attention to the detail works. Watching Low may have also reminded some of one of Robert Forster’s rules of rock and roll, that the 3 piece is the purest form of rock and roll expression. One can debate that all they like, but it felt true on this occasion. Likewise, that a band from another part of the world, distinctly the polar opposite of Brisbane, can envelop us in their part of the world for just an hour or so; it’s a majestic thing.

- Ian Powne