Lou Barlow
Doug Fir Lounge, Portland, OR
March 26, 2005

It's hard to say why Lou Barlow isn't the biggest star in alternative rock. Hell why isn't he a mega pop star? He certainly has the song craft and the melodies. Lou Barlow could be the most overlooked of all great singer songwriters of the past 20 years. Being the leader of Sebadoh, Folk Implosion as well as a part of the early Dinosaur Jr. has not really done much to make him the star that he should be. This is precisely why his tour itineraries often include venues such as the VFW Lodge and the Cask & Cleaver in some tiny town in the middle of nowhere.

I have seen Lou many times over the last few years, and his shows are always very warm and intimate. His shows lead me to question one thing: who are all the people at his shows? I spend many a day talking up Lou to just about everyone that I talk music with and get the same response from 100% of the people. Who? NO one that I come in contact with has ever heard of him. Some people vaguely recall the name Folk Implosion, and a few 90s slacker carry-overs recall Sebadoh, but never Lou. Yet, his shows always have people in attendance. Are these people merely in my imagination? The jury is out on that one.

Saturday night the Doug Fir was host to Lou, and those 'maybe' imaginary Lou Barlow fans. I will start by saying that this was not the best show Lou has given, and it had nothing really to do with him. For those that have seen him, Lou gives shows of length, taking requests and playing late into the night. This night there was a curfew due to an inane 'dance party' after leaving him annoyed that he only had about 45 minutes to play. In addition to the time constraint, Lou was also annoyed by the noise at the back by the bar. You see, there were quite a few people there for the 'dance party' after and were milling around the bar. During the slow moments, when we were supposed to be focused on the songs, all we could hear was LOUD LAUGHING and carryings on in the back. This never stopped, and frankly caused his performance to suffer.

Despite the annoyances, Lou treated us to plenty of songs from his latest album Emoh, which is worth picking up for those of you that like introspective folk-pop songs in that Elliott Smith vein. Lou also delved back into his catalog a bit and did Pearl from the New Folk Implosion album as well as Sebadoh's classic Soul & Fire. The price of admission alone was made up in the fantastic cover of Foreigner's Cold As Ice.

Lou Barlow is who he is. He is an underrated talent, and one of the most prolific songwriters of the alt-rock generation. Even though the elements were not perfect on this night, he greatness came through. Its time that this legend gets some respect.