Also this issue:

Acid Reigns
British DJ legend Gilles Peterson loves Philly back.
-Sean O’Neal

Riot Going On
The latest Red Hot disc has hip-hop and soul's current whiz kids taking on Kuti classics.
-A.D. Amorosi

Teddy Pendergrass
-A.D. Amorosi

Titan of 'Clash
Punk, trash, electroclash, it’s still rock ’n’ roll to Tee.
-A.D. Amorosi

Eternity
Dave Vanian's gonna smash it up till there's nothing left.
-Helen H. Thompson

thesuitespot
-Peter Burwasser on Classical

Is This Still It?
-Sam Adams

Beenie Man
-Ainé Ardron-Doley

October 10-16, 2002

musicpicks

Low

Without expanding their lineup or altering their sound, Low have somehow managed to get a whole lot bigger. (Consider that the biggest change in the band's live show was the day Mimi Parker added a bass drum to her cymbal-and-snare kit.) Plans to stage the band's show in the First Unitarian Church have unfortunately fallen through, but on Trust (Kranky), they bring the cathedral with them. Though the materials remain as simple as ever -- Parker and Zak Sally's molasses rhythms, Alan Sparhawk's choirboy voice, which blends with Parker's to create an unearthly sound -- they're recombined here for maximum drama, whether it's the funereal tug of "The Lamb" or the fragile, last-gasp beauty of "In the Drugs." Even for a band that's not known for escalated tempos, Trust is impressively, even awesomely, measured; the church bell accents of "John Prine" just emphasize the song's apocalyptic undertow. No one ever managed to make going down for the third time sound so sweet.

Fri., Oct. 11, 7 p.m., $10, all ages, with Mark Eitzel, Philadelphia Ethical Society, 1906 S. Rittenhouse Sq., www.r5productions.com.

—Sam Adams