Lowest of the Low at The Danforth Music Hall - Concert Photos

I've been a huge fan of The Lowest of the Low since before their groundbreaking debut album Shakespeare My Butt was released. The band has just released their latest album Agitpop and played a show at The Danforth Music Hall to celebrate. Ace of Wands opened the show. Check out my photos of their set here.

Agitpop features all the hallmarks of a great Lowest of the Low or Ron Hawkins album -  driving beats, great hooks, big choruses, thought-provoking, empowering and relevant themes and lyrics - mixed in with fresh flourishes like horns and a ska-influenced tune.

In addition to a whole bunch of tunes from Agitpop, we heard classics like "Pistol", "For the Hand of Magdalena", "Salesmen Cheats and Liars", "City Full of Cowards", "Bit", "Kinda the Lonely One", "4 O’Clock Stop", "Henry Needs a New Pair of Shoes" with some of The Clash's "Bank Robber", "Eternal Fatalist", and main set closer "Bleed a Little While Tonight". Before that last song, Ron brought up the recently and dearly departed local music icon Dave Bookman and stated for all of us that we'll keep doing the things that Dave told us to do until he tells us to stop.

The main set was followed by an encore of "Black Monday" with Ron and Lawrence, "Concave" with the addition of horns, a love song from Agitpop called "When She Falls", and of course, "Rosy and Grey". For that last song, the Low was joined by Ace of Wands. Fiddle and horns turned out to be excellent additions to this classic fan favourite.

I've been lucky enough to photograph Lowest of the Low a few times over the years. Check out my photos of them at Lee's Palace, at The Danforth Music Hall, at Toronto's Festival of Beer and at TURF.

I've concentrated on the LotL "classics" in my previous coverage, and so for this post, and to celebrate the release of the band's brand new album Agitpop, I'll focus on newer tunes. Check out the band's YouTube page too, because it's got some cool clips with the background stories on the new album's songs.

"Something to Believe In"

"Love 'N' Justice"

"Power Lines"

"New Wave Action Plan"

"The Barricade"

"Permanent Revolution"

Lowest of the Low at Lee's Palace - Concert Photos

Lowest of the Low are legends of the Canadian indie music scene of the early 1990s. Ron Hawkins, both with The Low and with his many solo and band incarnations, has been a mainstay of Canadian music ever since. I've stated many times before that he's one of my absolute favourite songwriters and The Low plus his work outside the band are all personal favourites.

This late 2018 show at Lee's Palace was an incredible walk through the band's history and a look into the future. The Low even got an introduction from Canadian modern rock historian and broadcasting personality Alan Cross. You can peruse the band's setlist below, including the three encores. The band sounded great and the songs rang out with passion and conviction.

While The Lowest of the Low are hot off the release of the Shakespeare My Box career retrospective box set, they announced that they have got a new album coming out in 2019. The band spent a bunch of January recording it, and Ron told us to mark May 31 on our calendars as "Love and Justice Day" for a Danforth Music Hall show.

"Pistol"
"Concave"
"For the Hand of Magdelena"
New song
"Gamble"
"Under the Carlaw Bridge"
"New Wave Action Plan"
"City Full of Cowards"
"So Long Bernie"
"Winter Sleepers"
"Salesmen, Cheats and Liars"
"Gerona Train"
"Lazy Days"
"Something to Believe In"
"Eternal Fatalist" with The Clash's "Bank Robber"
"Powerlines"
"California Gothic"
"Gossip Talkin' Blues"
"Bleed a Little While Tonight"
"Sincero"
"Henry Needs a New Pair of Shoes"
"The Taming of Carolyn"

Encore 1
"Black Monday"
"Love and Justice"
"Rosy and Grey"

Encore 2
"Bit"
"Letter from Bilbao"
"Kinda the Lonely One"

Encore 3
"Subversives"

Halfax indie rockers Scrapes did a great job opening the show. Check out my coverage of them here.

And for my previous coverage of The Low, click through for my thoughts and photos from their shows at Danforth Music Hall, Festival of Beer and TURF.

And now, this:

"For the Hand of Magdelena"

"Lazy Days"

"Something to Believe In"

"Eternal Fatalist"

"Powerlines"

"Bleed a Little While Tonight"

"Black Monday"

"Rosy and Grey"

"Kinda the Lonely One"

Ron Hawkins at The Danforth Music Hall - Concert Photos

Ron Hawkins. One of my absolute favourite singer songwriters. He and his guitar held us in rapt attention and musical bliss as he opened The Danforth Music Hall show for The Watchmen. I think it's pretty obvious that I loved his performance and loved hearing him sing his tunes along with the rest of the crowd.

His set started off with Lowest of the Low tune "Eternal Fatalist" with a bit of The Clash's "The Guns of Brixton" to celebrate the 39th anniversary of London Calling. That was followed by "Powerlines" from The Low's latest album Do The Right Now. Classic tune "Bite Down Hard" from Ron Hawkins and The Rusty Nails was next, followed by another recent tune "South Ontario". Ron brought out former Lowest of The Low sideman Steve Stanley for a couple of tunes, namely The Low's "Bleed a Little While Tonight" and Steve's "Minahbird". Ron continued the set with "Salesmen, Cheats and Liars", "Peace and Quiet" and one of my favourites of the favourites, "Black Monday". It's missing from my notes, and my memory's poor, but I have to assume Ron closed out with "Rosy and Grey". Correct me if I'm wrong.

As Ron himself commented, he definitely got a headlining band reception from the crowd. It was an amazing set no matter how you measure it.

Of course, I've covered Ron and The Lowest of the Low before. Check out my photos from The Low at The Danforth, Ron Hawkins and the Do-Good Assassins at TURF, Lowest of the Low at Festival of Beer, Ron Hawkins and the Do-Good Assassins at The Drake, Ron Hawkins and the Do-Good Assassins at The Horseshoe in 2014, and again in 2013, and Lowest of the Low at TURF in 2013.

Don't miss my photos of The Watchmen's headlining set here.

Enjoy some tunes:

"Eternal Fatalist"

"Powerlines"

"Bite Down Hard"

"Peace and Quiet"

"Black Monday"

Lowest of the Low at The Danforth Music Hall - Concert Pictures

Thirteen years after the release of Sordid Fiction, Lowest of the Low are back with a new album called Do The Right Now. The release of new Lowest of the Low music is reason to celebrate, and a completely sold-out crowd gathered at The Danforth Music Hall to celebrate The Low's music on Saturday night.

We got a full gamut of Low songs starting with the opening track off of Do The Right Now, "Powerlines", all the way back to songs from pre-Low band Popular Front, to the closing tune of the second encore, "Rosy and Grey" from the band's debut, Shakespeare My Butt. The band, comprised of bandmates-since-1983 Ron Hawkins on vocals and guitar, David Alexander on drums and Lawrence Nichols on harmonica, vocals, acoustic guitar and keyboards, plus Derrick Brady on bass and Michael McKenzie on guitar, played superbly and sounded awesome. In short, the songs, the band and the crowd came together for a fantastic night.

Ron gave us some great tidbits on the songs on the new album, including the fact that he felt "Gerona Train" should have been on Shakespeare My Butt, that new track "Immortal" is a conversation between present-day Ron and his 25-year-old self, and that "Something To Believe In" is an old tune from Ron's pre-Low band Popular Front. The new album is as solid as you'd expect and the new songs fit right in alongside the classics. It won't be long before we've learned the words and will be shouting them along. I liked the little details, like the new "More Art Less Bullshit" sticker on Ron's Tele. That's a sentiment that's always been true, but we might not have needed the reminder more than we have in recent times.

I've never been shy about saying that I'm a huge Lowest of the Low and Ron Hawkins fan. I maintain that he's one of the best songwriters Canada has produced and I've been a fan since before Shakespeare My Butt was released. I've been lucky enough to photograph The Low doing their thing at TURF 2013 and at Beerfest 2015. Click the links for those posts. All my posts on Ron's extra-Low endeavours can be found here.

Here's the setlist from this show:
"Powerlines"
"Kinda the Lonely One"
"For the Hand of Magdalena"
"Letter from Bilbao"
"Gerona Train"
"Gamble"
"Do the Right Now"
"Salesmen, Cheats and Liars"
"So Long Bernie"
"City Full of Cowards"
"Immortal"
"Just About the Only Blues"
"Something To Believe In"
"Infinite"
"The Last Recidivist"
"Gossip Talkin' Blues"
"Eternal Fatalist"

First Encore
"Subversives"
"California Gothic"
"Bleed a Little While Tonight"

Second Encore
"Rosy and Grey"

The band have a bunch more shows planned, starting with next weekend's appearance at the Sandbanks Music Festival and they mentioned dates at The Horseshoe for later in the year. Can't wait to see them back in the venue where I witnessed so many shows back in the day. Do The Right Now is available. Right now.

Listen to some of my favourite Lowest of the Low tunes:

"Powerlines"

"Kinda the Lonely One"

"For the Hand of Magdelena"

"Salesmen, Cheats and Liars"

"City Full of Cowards"

"Something To Believe In"

"The Last Recidivist"

"Eternal Fatalist"

"Bleed a Little While Tonight"

"Rosy and Grey"