Lou Barlow – Annandale Hotel, Sydney 16th April 2012

This show is the 6^th time I have seen Lou Barlow live in 2012.  I saw him 5 times on the Weezer Cruise with Dinosaur Jr, Sebadoh & Solo.  Of those shows my favourite show was definitely his solo show.  Not saying he isn't awesome with Dinosaur Jr or Sebadoh but I think he is at his best in a solo acoustic setting. 

When we arrived at the Annandale Hotel Lou was hanging out at the Merch desk selling T-shirts and CD’s.  There was a much large crowd gathered than I had expected.  Allot of this was due to talk of slow sales and the tour possibly being cancelled.  Lou’s set began with a number of very early tracks from the Weed Forestin’ cassette which had recently been re-released.  Played on a Ukulele these tracks were retained their stripped back feeling but had a nice clarity that Lou’s lo-fi recordings missed.  With New Worship, It's So Hard to fall in Love & Jealous of Jesus being standouts.  From the time Lou swapped over to guitar the set seemed to be created on the spot from audience request to new songs Lou wanted to give a spin. 

We were treated to 2 new songs, a new Solo tune and a new Dinosaur Jr song.  The new solo tune is a dark tune with some fantastic guitar playing which is has an English folk feel to it.  Looking forward to hearing this on a record some day.  The other tune which Lou described as a mix between Queens of the Stone Age and Elliot Smith was good but would certainly benefit from Dinosaur Jr treatment.  Many requests were unfulfilled due to Lou not being able to remember them but a nice mix of Sebadoh, Folk Implosion and Solo material were played in a nearly 2 hour set.   Soulmate, Think (Let Tomorrow Bee), Home and Foreigner cover Cold as Ice were highlights. 

Unlike most encores tonight’s encore was genuine and unplanned.  Lou who left the stage and made his way to the Merch stand to sell his wares returned to the stage after receiving much love from the audience.  A further 4 songs were played before it was all over. 

Thank you Lou for a  great night.  

Lou Barlow Setlist:

Poledo

New Worship

Ride the Darker Wave

I Can't See

I Believe in Fate

It's So Hard to fall in Love

Jealous of Jesus

Brand New Love

New Song

Take Advantage

Soulmate

Free to Go

Think (Let Tomorrow Bee)

Spoiled

Home

New Dinosaur Jr Song

On Fire

Ballad of Daykitty

Human Punching Bag

Natural One

Skull

The One I Call

Cold as Ice

Rebound

Together or Alone

Soul and Fire

Encore:

Punch in the Nose

Healthy Sick

Magnets Coil

Pearl