The Low Anthem
So, Ed Balls is in the fine city to switch on the Christmas lights. Making my way to OPEN, the streets are crowded but the Club Room isn’t. Which is a shame because And The Kids must be one of the best new bands I have had the pleasure of seeing this year.
Hailing from Massachusetts, the four-piece play a quirky, lo-fi but catchy strain of pop, with hints of the Delgados, Cardiacs, the Breeders, Sparks and UT. Guitarist Hannah Mohan voice has a little of Stevie Nicks about it, along with a touch of Nightingales’ Robert Lloyd’s vibrato. Drummer Rebecca Lasaponaro provides creative rhythms, Megan Miller adds splashes of bold colour with synth and percussion whilst bassist Taliana Katz anchors it together.
I’ve been waiting to see The Low Anthem since I first heard third album Oh My God, Charlie Darwin back in 2008. Since then, the core duo of Ben Knox Miller and Jeff Prystowsky have been joined by Florence Wallis and Bryan Minto, with Smart Flesh being released in 2011 and Eyeland following earlier this year. Following a fairly serious car crash in the summer, it is good to see the band here tonight.
That said, I am not entirely won over by the set. The intro seems interminable and I am not the only one here checking the time. Finally, after what seems a good quarter of an hour, the band take to the stage and we have ten minutes of spoken word over a clacking typewriter, bird noises and seemingly random woodwind. There’s part of me that thinks it is all a little pretentious but it is also strangely enthralling and there is a loveliness here.
What follows leaves me conflicted. There are more moments of sublime beauty. On the rare occasions that the band let rip and rock out, it becomes a near-perfect mix of Crazy Horse and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. But there are also periods that border on the bland that leave me unengaged.
I am almost certainly in a minority of one here. The vast majority of the respectful and quietly enthusiastic audience seem to be thoroughly enjoying this. It is probably me not getting it rather than the Low Anthem not delivering the goods. Whatever, I stay for an hour before the road beckons and I head for home.
