{"id":48497,"date":"2025-05-04T00:59:34","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T04:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=48497"},"modified":"2025-05-29T13:35:52","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T17:35:52","slug":"review-lowertown-crystal-ballroom-4-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2025\/05\/04\/review-lowertown-crystal-ballroom-4-30\/","title":{"rendered":"Lowertown @ Crystal Ballroom 4\/30"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photography by Liana Snow<\/p>\n

Review by James Klein<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Opener Dogs on Shady Lane<\/p>\n

Arriving early at Davis Square in Somerville, I spotted Olive and Avsha entering a thrift store, waving from across the street, a fitting preview of the night’s welcoming vibe. Inside the ballroom, purple lighting on the walls and chandeliers overhead set a warm scene as fans gathered near the stage, anticipating Lowertown\u2019s performance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Opener sweet93<\/p>\n

The first opener, Dogs on Shady Lane, delivered alternative folk songs with soft-spoken lyrics similar to Faye Webster\u2019s and bursts of distortion. Their use of maracas, drumsticks, and mallets gave their slow ballads a textured feel, ending with a stunning three-part harmony that set a high bar for the night.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Next up was sweet93, whose set leaned heavily into shoegaze. Cool-toned lights faced the crowd, leaving the band in near-darkness. Their set began with a droning horror-film-like soundtrack as singer Chloe emerged zombie-like from the floor. Chloe performed much of the set on the floor, menacingly breathing into the microphone between songs. The blue light and droning transitions left the audience dazed. The lights finally illuminated the band as the guitarist soloed erratically, threw the instrument in the air, and almost fell into the pit.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Lowertown<\/p>\n

Then came Lowertown. Avsha opened with the acoustic \u201cIt\u2019s Easy For Me,\u201d calming the room after sweet93\u2019s intensity. The rest of the band, composed of Immanuel on the drums, Eva on the bass, and Olive on guitar and vocals, joined him onstage as Olive grabbed the mic, glared playfully at the crowd, and demanded, \u201cHow are we doing tonight Boston?\u201d and then further emphasized, \u201cI SAID, how are we doing tonight Boston?!\u201d to much more noise from the audience. \u201cThat’s what I like to hear. We’re gonna play music for you now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The band launched into \u201cSeaface\u201d engulfed in red light. Olive used a harsh vocal style, adapted the song\u2019s gentler vocals to fit a more raw live style. Eva stared down, lazily plucked the bass, as Immanuel soloed. The band went with a chaotic ending, Olive swung the mic and wrapped it around her body, as Immanuel continued, and Avsha passionately played his riffs. Olive said, \u201cThe energy in here is good, but it could be even better,\u201d prompting fans to \u201cSay hi to your neighbor,\u201d beginning a string of energy-boosting cues. \u201cNow that you\u2019re comfortable, let’s move a bit.\u201d The band burst into \u201cDebris\u201d as the crowd started moving a little more, but not as much as Olive, who danced in a funky, bouncy dance, moving her arms and legs around. Avsha announced that the next song was from the new album, and they played \u201cWorst Friend,\u201d which featured back-and-forth vocals between Olive and Avsha, their harmonies contrasting yet complementary.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The crowd nodded their heads, but Olive wanted more, introducing \u201cthis thing called moshing,\u201d saying, \u201cI heard they do it at shows sometimes.\u201d The band played \u201cScum,\u201d accompanied by flashing red lights and moshing from the most passionate fans in the pit. Olive\u2019s screaming vocals propelled the energy, beckoning more people to join the pit.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that’s what that is. I like that. You learn something new every day.\u201d Another highlight came later on as Olive said, \u201cThis is my favorite song behind \u2018Scum,\u2019 and that means you should turn it up a notch,\u201d as they went into \u201cAntibiotics.\u201d Avsha played syncopated guitar riffs, and Olive danced, energetically kicking around in circles.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The pace briefly slowed with \u201cBline,\u201d during which Olive taught the crowd a new hand signal from their Philadelphia show, an L over a T for Lowertown. For the rest of the show, the crowd adopted this signal as if the band had been using it for years. Olive teased the audience, saying there were three more songs, but offering more if we were good. After the explosive ending of another new song, \u201cForgive Yourself,\u201d Olive announced that they had two songs left, played \u201cBucktooth\u201d and \u201cThe Best Person You Know,\u201d leaving the crowd out of breath from spirited performances of two of their most popular songs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you, Boston, you were lit. See you next time,\u201d Olive said as she left the stage with the rest of the band. However, the crowd wasn’t over, as encore chants began and people put up the newly-learned \u201cLT\u201d sign.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After a short break, Olive and Avsha walked back out for one more song. Building off the crowd\u2019s excitement, Olive said, \u201cThis last song, I think you\u2019ll all know\u2026 It\u2019s called the \u2018Itsy Bitsy Spider.\u2019 It\u2019s a classic! Just kidding, it’s called \u2018The Gaping Mouth.\u2019\u201d The duo left much of the crowd teary-eyed as they played their nostalgic hit, Avsha on guitar and Olive in her falsetto, pointing at lucky members of the crowd as she repeatedly sang, \u201cYou are the iris in my eye.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Closing on this powerful, emotional note, Lowertown proved their range, not only musically, but in their ability to shape the room\u2019s energy and make a crowd feel part of something bigger. The band left the audience buzzing, bonded by inside jokes, hand signs, and a shared experience, taking pictures with almost every fan after the show. After such a powerful performance and with a new album on the horizon, it\u2019s safe to say Lowertown will be back in Boston soon.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photography by Liana Snow Review by James Klein Opener Dogs on Shady Lane Arriving early at Davis Square in Somerville, I spotted Olive and Avsha entering a thrift store, waving from across the street, a fitting preview of the night’s welcoming vibe. Inside the ballroom, purple lighting on the walls and chandeliers overhead set a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21925,"featured_media":48585,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1525,1523,15],"tags":[1919,2401],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48497"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21925"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48497"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48784,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48497\/revisions\/48784"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}