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Lower Dens, Live In Concert: SXSW 2012

By Stephen Thompson
Published March 15, 2012 at 6:24 PM EDT

Lower Dens' music favors mood over stage-stalking showmanship: Singer Jana Hunter's icy-cool demeanor sets a hauntingly atmospheric tone that's all mystery, washes of guitar-saturated noise and the difficult emotions that lie, unexpressed, beneath the surface. Mixing songs from 2010's majestic Twin Hand Movement with material from the hotly anticipated Nootropics, Lower Dens seethed through a gorgeous, brooding set at NPR Music's SXSW day party, held Thursday at The Parish in Austin, Texas.

With roots in Baltimore and (appropriately enough) Texas, Lower Dens' members specialize in a fragile mix of warm and cool, with clear influences ranging from The Velvet Underground to '80s new wave. On stage at The Parish, Lower Dens found the sweet spot that lies between, locating a patch of real estate where shyness doesn't preclude soul.

Set List

  • "Alphabet Song"

  • "Lion In Winter Pt. 2"

  • "Brains"

  • "Stem"

  • "Candy"

  • "Propagation"

    • Credits

    Producer: Robin Hilton and Amy Schriefer; Video by: XI Media; Edited by Mito Habe-Evans; Photos by Katie Hayes Luke; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait

    Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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    Music News from NPR
    Stephen Thompson
    Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)
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