I had concerns about my abilities to stay awake during this show due to the general mellowness of all three bands; though I was really excited to see Low for the first time, I was concerned about seeing the “slowcore” pioneers in a sold-out, 1000+ capacity concert venue as opposed to a smaller, coffee shop-type space that would be a better fit for their music. Instead, it appears Low have gotten popular enough to outgrow their own sound, and their most recent album, The Great Destroyer, reflects that growth with a much more guitar-centered sound fitting for a typical rock venue such as the Metro.

Tim Rutilli, lead singer of Chicago’s experimental alt-country collective Califone, came on to open the show with a solo set as a last-minute replacement for original openers L’Altra. It’s too bad the entire band wasn’t available, because Califone puts on an amazing live show; each member plays a number of different and sometimes unusual instruments to create the sometimes bizarre, yet beautiful noise that they do. Still, it was interesting to see Tim play those same songs in such a stripped down fashion, with just his voice and his guitar; he seemed so small and alone seated on a folding chair in the middle of the huge Metro stage as I watched from up above on the balcony. But oh, how I love his voice. As a solo performer his gritty, weathered vocals became the centerpiece of the songs rather than just another sound in the usual crazy mix. It was an interesting change of pace for this Califone fan, one that left me longing to see them play together again.

Pedro the Lion took the stage next with a rather underwhelming set that consisted mostly of songs from their latest, Achilles Heel, an album I pretty much ignored. I had hoped to hear a little more from my favorite Pedro album, Control, but came away sorely disappointed as only “Penetration” made it onto the set list. In the biggest misstep of the night, lead singer Dave Bazan decided to attempt some sort of “question and answer period” before the final song, which only resulted in members of the, again, 1000+ audience shouting out stupid things on top of each other while Dave stood there, not really knowing what to say. After several last-minute requests from the audience for him to end with “Rapture,” Dave ignored their outward (and my inner) pleas for the song and played . . . well, something else.

Finally the time came for Low to pick up their instruments, and they immediately launched right into the new rock with “Monkey,” the creepy-ish opener on the new album containing the amusing chorus of “The monkey dies tonight.” As expected, their set pretty much alternated between Low’s new material and their calmer classics, and although it’s generally agreed that the new album doesn’t live up to their older work, I think having a good mix of fast rock and quiet minimalism kept the audience (and myself) awake and interested. The true highlight of the night, however, was found in the vocals of drummer Mimi Parker, which are utterly amazing. In fact, she sounded even better live than she does on the albums. Props need to be given to whoever was doing the sound for the show, because her and guitarist Alan Sparhawk's voices were absolutely crystal clear the entire time, and great sound was the only way Low could possibly have pulled off such a good show in a venue that large. Meanwhile, I think every show has a standout moment, and for Low, that moment came in the form of "Laser Beam," a song which puts complete focus on Mimi’s soothing voice with only a few plucks of the guitar to back her up. For probably the only five minutes of the night, every single person in the venue was dead silent, allowing the sound of that gorgeous voice to breathtakingly echo throughout the Metro. It brought to mind images of the "Silencio" theater scene in Mullholland Drive, one of the most moving movie moments I have ever seen.

Low wrapped up the show with another ill-advised attempt to converse with the audience, a move that worked no better for Low than it did for Pedro the Lion, and it clearly made the crowd restless. After finally moving on to a demand for final requests, Low chose to finish things off with “Star Fire,” wrapping up a surprisingly effective set of music. In an ideal world I would have liked to see Low while sitting on a couch at a tiny venue while they just ran through Things We Lost in the Fire; unfortunately, we live in a less-than-ideal world, and you gotta work with what you have. Considering the circumstances surrounding this show, Low did a pretty damn good job.