On a late September night, Lower Dens made their return to New York for a show at The Bowery Ballroom. Along for the ride and opening the show was Abdu Ali, who also hails from Baltimore (just like Lower Dens). 2015 has been a fantastic year for Lower Dens – they released their absolutely amazing third album, Escape from Evil back in March via Ribbon Music and have stopped in to New York for a bunch of shows, including an album release show at Baby’s All Right and a Northside Festival performance at Music Hall of Williamsburg.
First up for the night was opener Abdu Ali, and as soon as he took to the stage I knew we were all in for a treat. He called his music “Empowerment Music,” which ranged from political topics to the landscape of Baltimore (both the good and the bad). It was an amazing way to open the show, and I’m sure we’ll be seeing more from Ali in the future.
After Ali’s set, anticipation for Lower Dens was greater than ever. They finally took to the stage, and with little frills. They jumped right into their set and front woman Jana Hunter barely said a word to the crowd. She eventually warmed up a bit and began chatting with the crowd and even cracked a few jokes. What was most refreshing from their set was towards the end, Hunter addressed the crowd mentioning that they “play longer sets these days.” Rightfully so, with three solid albums under their belt, they most certainly have enough material to play longer sets. But the refreshing part was when Hunter had mentioned that skipping the encore gave them the time to squeeze a few more songs into their set lists every night. No ego issue here – just pure and genuine honesty, giving the fans what they want. More music with less frills. A lot can be said about that as,
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