Higher Burning Fire

Higher Burning Fire‘s lushly orchestrated In Plain Song deserved a slot on the area’s — if not the nation’s — short list for best albums of 2000. Yet the group never really attracted the attention it deserved, mostly because its flame seldom flickered close to home. While the local scene’s higher-profile acts spiked power-pop punch with bittersweet tears, the Higher Burning Fire was communicating subtle sorrow with melancholy melodies and slow symphonic sighs. A sextet when it recorded In Plain Song at Lawrence’s Red House Studio, the now-East-Coast-based band has slimmed to a quartet for this tour. (Two members are out of the country.) Future projects include a new full-length album and a possible backing-band gig with Lawrence native (and former Butterglory singer) Matt Suggs. With its prominent yet polite vocals, minimalist piano pecks and pensively plucked guitars, the Higher Burning Fire might well be the quietest band to grace the Davey’s Uptown stage this year, but it could also rank among the most emotionally evocative — no small feat at a venue known for hosting talented tearjerkers.