Live Review: Lou Barlow

There's a fascinating dichotomy at the heart of Lou Barlow's style. He's been credited as the "king of lo-fi", a reductive title synonymous with scuzzy home recordings and distortion-driven rock. While everyone is busy frothing over his work with Dinosaur Jr or Sebadoh, his elegant songwriting and expressive, often tender voice is pushed aside. His solo show (helping to close this year's Sydney Fest) felt as close to the "truest" version as we're ever likely to get; the shaggy, bespectacled man in his 40s singing sweetly through a thick beard and long hair over a drop-tuned ukulele felt like an authentic Barlow experience. It was also Lou at his most exposed, but we did our polite best to make him feel comfortable.

The night was broken up into two parts: the first dedicated to his recent solo album Brace The Wave (recorded in just six days) and the second to requests and curiosities. Tracks like Redeemed and Wave were stripped back and chilly, while Nerve felt like a feverish Irish trad number played during a lock-in to whip up drinkers. Pulse feels thin and fragile on record, but on stage he dragged it out into the light, giving it a fuller, richer feeling — something the subject matter deserves.

The second half was all about requests. Legendary, Skull and even Day Kitty got a look in, the latter being about a cat that he adopted until it grew tired of him and never returned. Imagination Blind from Dinosaur Jr's Farm record felt like a welcome visitor, and Sebadoh's Soul And Fire fit in nicely.

It was the inclusion of a song called Punch In The Nose that really caught our attention. It's a short and simple piece about looking for trouble, unique for the fact that it was one of the first songs he ever wrote. Getting to hear his teenage voice felt like a privilege, one that very few artists would allow.