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• MUSIC REVIEW (Live) •

Lou Barlow, Flecton Bigsky, Soft Disasters The Official Site

Date: Tuesday October 4, 2005

When Lou Barlow sings, every song is a lullaby. Alternating between classical and steel-stringed acoustic guitars, Barlow was accompanied only by an occasional guitar loop, sampled with a pedal on the floor, which he then along with on a 70's synth. A regular and a distorted microphone also allowed him to mix things up a bit, vocal-wise. Despite the minimalist trappings, Barlow's soothing, sometimes frail voice lulled the crowd into a hypnotized mass of awe-struck deer in disco-ball headlights, only to awaken after each song in a mass of enthusiastic applause and hoots of encouragement. Barlow did his best to play requests shouted from the crowd, including the old favourite Magnet's Coil from Sebadoh's "Bakesale", Love Is Stronger from 1999's "The Sebadoh", and variety of material new and old.

Warming up the crowd were Flecton Bigsky and the Dreamcatchers playing a two-guitar-and-drums noise-pop assault that would make any fan of early Sebadoh proud, and Soft Disasters, another local band who pulled off a short but solid set of introspective lo-fi guitar pop, despite the fact that they were playing for the first time with a new rhythm section.

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