Low Flying Owls, with The Fall

Sacramento's Low Flying Owls swoop into the Valley, bringing a modern mlange of hard, distorted guitar rock and off-kilter psychedelic experimentalism to promote their second full-length, Elixir Vitae, an excellent offering that flirts with many styles but decides it likes two the best. Vitae's loud tracks are repetitive enough to...

By Jonathan Bond

May 6, 2004

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Sacramento's Low Flying Owls swoop into the Valley, bringing a modern mlange of hard, distorted guitar rock and off-kilter psychedelic experimentalism to promote their second full-length, Elixir Vitae, an excellent offering that flirts with many styles but decides it likes two the best. Vitae's loud tracks are repetitive enough to either hypnotize or induce ass shaking -- or sometimes both on one song -- in the same way a good T-Rex song might, with singer and principal songwriter Jared Southard's snarling vocals painting dark pictures that meld with the pulsating backdrop. The mid-tempo offerings are just as effective when acoustic guitar, melted strings and Southard's voice play at trippiness. And while the band does borrow, it creates more than it steals -- a modern missing link between hard garage psychedelia, early Floyd and Brit Pop.

Cult heroes The Fall headline the bill, so the musical prospects are good. Let's just hope that Mark E. Smith is not confined to a chair behind a desk as he was on the last tour (due to injury), and that the Owls don't inadvertently close the Brickhouse -- the last gig they played in town turned out to be the final night before Nita's Hideaway shut down.

Jonathan Bond

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