The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • 37

www.burlingtonfreepress.com Thursday, April 22, 2010 WEEKEND 3 Sunday KLUSICVEKIS Saturday The Monteverdi Vespers of 1610, 7:30 p.m., Cathedral Church of St. Paul, 2 Cherry Burlington. A grand collection of settings for chorus and soloists of psalm and canticle texts that are appropriate for the evening service called Vespers. 400 years ago, Monteverdi's setting summed up the best of the late Renaissance and opened the door to the Baroque style In large-scale sacred works. $18 adults, students and seniors 1 5, age 1 5 and younger free.

Tickets at Hopkins Bookshop 686-6223 and FlynnTix 863-5966. Spring Choral Concert, 8 p.m., Mahaney Center for the Arts, Middlebury College. Music for women's voices by Johannes Brahms and the Vespers of 1610 by Claudio Monteverdi are highlights in a program of exquisite musical color for the coming of spring. Tickets: $1086. www.middlebury.edu or 443-3168.

The Gait Line and Captain Ronzo, 9:30 p.m., Manhattan Pizza and Pub, 167 Main Burlington. Free, all ages. 1 vJV i so we would shut them off when we recorded. A lot of those tracks were recorded at 40-degree temperatures. It was a really unique time.

I think we captured it on tape. BFP: The Low Anthem became quite the buzz band in 2009; you were signed to Wilco's record label (Nonesuch), you've been out on your first headlining tour and performed on "Late Show with David Letterman." Did it all seem to happen quickly, or is it one of those overnight stories that took years to happen? JP: Somewhere in between. It wasn't like we were working for 10 years and then finally someone caught oa We made the first record independently, Ben and I "What the Crow Brings," we made in our apartment in Rhode Island. We made "Charlie Darwin" the same way, independently, but this time with Jocie and toured in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York. A couple months into the cycle is when everything really started to kick into high gear.

We had been working together for like three years or so; it's not like eight or nine years, but we had no experience touring. We had toured on a full record independently, and we had started touring on "Darwin," a 30-show tour before we had a record label or agent or any outside help. We were familiar with the manufacture of CDs, how to record your own record and book your own shows, and we were really operating independently. That was VERMONT AIL STATE JAZZ EKSEM3LE Arioso Prlmavera, 4 p.m., Unitarian Church, 130 Main Montpelier. Central Vermont's acclaimed chamber music ensemble offers duets of Mendelssohn and Bach, works by Frank Bridge, Mozart, a Bach partita, and songs by Rachmaninoff, Ponce, and Faure.

Suggested donation at the door: Adults, $15; students and seniors, $10. 223-2712. ParnasSerkln Trio, 4 p.m., Centre Congregational Church, 193 Main Brattleboro. Pianist Peter Serkln, Violinist Ma-dalyn Parnas and Cellist Cicely Parnas. Part of the Brattleboro Music Center Chamber Music Series.

Tickets: $30, $20, $10, at BrattleboroTix.com or 257-4523. Tuesday Musical Potpourri, noon-1 p.m., Cathedral Church of St. Paul, 2 Cherry Burlington. Tamara Plummer, bassoon and Melody Puller, piano play, a mix of music from classical to spiritual, from strange to Inspiring and enlightening. Free.

Bring a lunch. www.CathedralArts.org or 864-0471. IU1 (TnTW rvn mm HEM MSSSfH the bright Mississippi By Brent Hallenbeck Free Press Staff Writer ermont music fans have had the pleasure of watching The Low Anthem grow over the years. The Rhode Island band played several shows at cozy venues such as Radio Bean, The Monkey House and The Langdon Street Cafe, starting when the indie-folk group was pretty much just Ben Knox Miller and Jeff Prystowsky for the first album "What the Crow Brings" and through the second (and breakthrough) album, "Oh, My God, Charlie Darwin," with third member Jocie Adams. Now the evolution of The Low Anthem to a band garnering national attention includes yet another expansion a fourth member, Mat Davidson for the still-untitled third album, due in September.

Prystowsky, speaking by phone during a recent tour stop in Montreal, talked about changes both gradual and sudden for The Low Anthem, which plays tonight in Montpelier. Burlington Free Press: When you opened for Ray Lamontagne at the Flynn Center a year ago, the show was very low-key and intense and beautiful When you opened for Josh Ritter at the University of Vermont in December, you were more raucous and loud. Do you determine your set to fit the circumstances, or is your sound naturally getting grittier? Jeff Prystowsky: It's the former. We have both sides, and under ideal RANDOM NOTES The Higher Ground Ballroom in South Burlington will be rocking and sold out at 7 p.m. Saturday when Mastodon headlines a show that includes Between the Buried and Me, Baroness and Valient Thorr.

652-0777, www.highergroundmusic Saxophone phenom Joshua Redman and piano master Brad Mehldau deliver a one-two jazz punch at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Flynn Center in Burlington. 863-5966, www.flynntix.org. Singer-songwriter fans get a nice doubleheader, too, when Patty Larkln and Chris Smither share the bill at 8 tonight in the Higher Ground Showcase Lounge. $20 in advance, $22 day of show.

652-0777, www. highergroundmusic.com. Vermont folk veteran Rick Norcross is giving an intimate house concert at 6 WHO: The Low Anthem WHEN: 7:30 tonight r.w.,s WHERE: The Bethany Church, Montpelier TICKETS: $13 in advance, $15 at the door INFORMATION: edified5gmail.com; http:nekmf.front gatetickets.com. ill like almost two years into it. And then the record label saw us play in New York and once a record label comes on board Nonesuch knew all these different people and were interested in releasing the record nationally, and we had interest in releasing it internationally and the business side of it grew from being a Northeast band to being international in about a year.

It was like, "Now the record's being released in Germany," and we were like, "What?" Then they told us we had to tour Europe, and we were like, "What?" That all happened quickly. BFP: Vermont seems to have been a big early supporter of the band, based on the number of shows you've played here. JP: I would say that The Langdon Street Cafe did play a significant role in giving us a chance. They're in Montpelier, and the guy who booked us, Ed DuFresne (who booked tonight's show), is a really good friend. Right from the start, 2006 with the "Crow" record, he was giving us gigs at The Langdon Street Cafe pretty much every month and a half.

We played there like six times. We kept going back up; it was a really nice place to play. It wasn't like he personally helped shape our sound, but he gave us the chance when other places wouldn't. He was like, "Let me help you bring people out. You list the show, and I'll get newspapers to write about you and spread the word among friends." So we're still playing shows with him.

Wm If returns to Burlington for a show at Club Metronome at 7 p.m. Saturday with local opener Joe Adler. $8 in advance, $10 day of show. 865-4563, www.clubmetro nome.com. DISCOVER MiCNAEl CKORKEY SEHTET 5 circumstances, we balance them.

Those two particular occasions were more a factor of the room and the audience rather than what we were feeling at the time. BFP: The albums have had a similar evolution the first one was mellow, and the second one shows signs of a beefier sound. The band keeps growing, too; you're up to four members now. Is that a reflection of wanting a bigger sound? JP: This new record, I think, is not going to sound that different in terms of musical style as the sound of the band from the last two records, but it does have its own unique sound due to the fourth member and the fact that we played most of it live as opposed to overdubbing. We've been touring for two years as a band on "Darwin" and got used to each other playing songs start to finish, so that feels organic and feels real and then even more so you're going to hear the sound of the space at the pasta-sauce factory where we recorded it (in Central Falls, R.I.).

It's a massive space, 40,000 square feet, 16-foot-high ceilings. We set up to record there with microphones at all different distances; we picked up the natural reverb of the instruments. Whatever style we were playing, that space accepted all the notes and just colored all the tracks. It (the album) sounds like that month we spent in the factory. The other thing about it is that it was freezing.

We recorded it in winter. The factory only had three small heaters to heat that whole space, and the heaters were loud By Brent Hallenbeck, Free Press p.m. Sunday at 216 Battery St. in Burlington, a couple of weeks before departing for a series of performances in Spain. $25.

864-6674. The Florida band Against Mel brings its exclamation point and its punk-fueled music to the Higher Ground Ballroom with Dead to Me and Moneybrother at 8 p.m. Sunday. $12 in advance, $15 day of show. 652-0777, www.highergroundmusic The Southern-flavored beach music of Zach Deputy sends a warm breeze into the Higher Ground Showcase Lounge with Hammajang Over at 8:30 p.m.

Friday. $10. 652-0777, www Jiigherground music.com. The hip-hop show that had been scheduled for 9 p.m. Friday in the Higher Ground Ballroom with Kidz In the Hall, 88 Keys, Izza Klzza and Donnis has been postponed until June 6.

652-0777, www.higherground music.com. The University of Vermont's annual Springfest party gets going at noon Saturday at Patrick Gymnasium (or outdoors on the green, weather permitting) and features the music of the Toronto-based electronic group MSTRKRFT (that's "Master Craft" for you nontexting folks). The day of music will also include Ingrld Michaelson, Presented by: Staff Writer Contact Brent at bhallenbeckburlingtonfreepress.com QunniET mi IHsi Ii lf.f HM Theophilus London, lla Mawana and Fancy Drifters. $25. 656-4410, www.uvmtickets.com.

The young Northampton, singer-songwriter Sonya Kitchell A ounce: DEnnouomun i ft' 5k. FIYNN fIFNTFR FAR Er.ov8Tnfn-8Tr.n3 THE PERFORMING ARTS NORTH FIELD Kruucrw 5 3 ft savings bank BURLINGTON CITY ARTS SKNlCffi WPT3t.com Gallo (comcast (fjpfflfe) FAMILY V-" JVt3' urli'mjhm JFret J)rn A Local Custom.