Review: The Low Anthem, Pocklington Arts Centre (From York Press)

Review: The Low Anthem, Pocklington Arts Centre

10:12am Wednesday 1st September 2010 in

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IN the lull after a two-hour set that ended with a thrash-out blues version of the nursery rhyme There’s A Hole In My Bucket, The Low Anthem sat on the steps outside Pocklington Arts Centre.

They were filling in their Performing Right Society form, debating which songs they had or had not played.

You might think they should know, but the Rhode Island four-piece eschew a set list, and last Thursday was one of those special nights where they were caught up in the moment, swapping instruments until the point where all four had done a stint on the drums.

A new album is in the offing – the follow-up to Oh My God Charlie Darwin – although it will be delayed until next year for the want of one final recording session. It must be in pursuit of perfection because their extraordinary Pocklington show was laden with so many new melancholic folk and gospel riches that they almost forgot to revisit Charlie Darwin’s gems.

They like lighting as low as their name and instruments as old as time, and they looked and sounded like The Band in 1968, with Janis Joplin thrown in for good measure on a couple of occasions, but they are far from retro as Ben Knox Miller’s voice, sometimes pure, other times dirty, can take them anywhere.