Concert Review: The Appleseed Cast at the Record Bar

If the Appleseed Cast‘s newest album Sagarmatha escalated the group to unfathomable heights (after all, “sagarmatha” is Nepalese for Mount Everest), it was 2001’s Low Level Owl 1 and 2 that functioned as their base camp. ​Sunday night at the Record Bar, the Appleseed Cast played both volumes in their entirety. It was proof that the Lawrence-based quartet, which recently signed with the Chicago independent label Graveface Records, has an affinity for the Midwest. Their songs are akin to a stark, windswept horizon: a place encircled by the seasons, where the triviality of a lukewarm day under baby blue skies can – at a moment’s notice – yield to thunderclouds bearing an Old Testament likeness.