LIVE
LE GUESS WHO?
Utrecht, the Netherlands, November 9-12
Devastating new songs from Low’s Alan Sparhawk, amid this Dutch festival’s panoply of global delights
Benju maestro Ustad Noor Bakhsh (right) and his damboora player Doshambay
MELANIEMARSMAN;LISANNELENTINK
“PEACE on this earth,” says Alan Sparhawk plaintively, towards the end of arevelatory set in Utrecht’s 13th-century Jacobikerk. It is asentiment shared and keenly felt by everyone at this proudly multicultural, multi-venue Dutch festival, which provides awelcome respite from the horrors of the news cycle and its attendant toxic debate, instead promoting an unspoken agenda of openness, curiosity and wonder. Here, there is as much clamour for the astonishing fingerwork of 78-year-old Balochi benju master Ustad Noor Bakhsh as there is for hotly tipped Brooklyn art-punkers Model/Actriz.
Sparhawk’s first show outside the US following the death of his wife and Low bandmate Mimi Parker was always going to be an emotional affair, but nobody could have predicted quite how raw he’d be willing to get. Recently he appears to have been prioritising Derecho Rhythm Section, aplayful indiefunk band featuring his son Cyrus on bass. Cyrus also joins him at Le Guess Who?, along with the equally young-looking Owen Mahon on drums and Dave Carroll (of Trampled By Turtles) on electric banjo, and the four of them begin by working up a loose instrumental jam.