Lou Barlow at the ICA

Lou Barlow

ICA, 26 November 2025

It was an evening of stories, banter, laughs and plenty of songs from Lou Barlow's long career in the alternative rock world, from Dinosaur Jr to Sebadoh to Folk Implosion, all in the intimate and friendly setting of the ICA. And apparently this show was all in aid of Barlow's wife getting to see My Bloody Valentine in Dublin: how lucky for us?!

I must admit that I'm primarily a Dinosaur Jr fan and aside from seeing Sebadoh back in 1999 (mostly for the support act that night, Elliott Smith), I've only ever seen Lou Barlow playing bass with Dinosaur Jr, and occasionally singing a song or two with them too of course. So I mainly purchased a ticket for this show at the suggestion of a friend who didn't end up going, but I was intrigued, as an intimate solo show with Barlow meant that we would get material from all the bands he's played with: a kind of Lou Barlow greatest hits so to speak. The show was actually more expansive than that: more of a Barlow superfan's dream with lots of rare tracks and deep cuts, and even though I greatly over-estimated the amount of Lou Barlow tracks I actually knew, it was still great fun and pretty cool to see him close-up and witness the friendly and funny way he interacts with fans.

Incredibly it's been 16 years since I last went to the ICA, for either The Mars Volta or St. Vincent, so I got a little confused getting there and I had forgotten there's a bar outside the venue where you wait before you go in, but thankfully it all worked out and I managed to get a nice spot by the stage. Once again though I seemed to be the only woman at the front, so I made a spot for a girl behind me and she seemed to appreciate it, plus it must get boring every night seeing the same middle-aged dudes at the front, so I'm sure Barlow must have appreciated too, seeing this young trendy woman (not me, the girl I made room for) in front of him for once. I would hope so anyway!

Barlow almost seemed to stumble onto the stage, bringing out his setlist and drink I think, then ambling off again, the crowd cheering all the while, until he quickly returned. It was certainly not a showy star entrance that's for sure, but definitely a punk rock one, with Barlow looking charmingly disheveled, with his big mess of curly hair and bushy beard. He looked very cool though and seemed in a great mood, particularly when someone shouted for "Lou's Anxiety Song," an early track from his first band Deep Wound, and gamely attempted the first few chords from the chaotic punk number, before stopping laughing. It was a nice start to the gig and showed Barlow's willingness to interact with his audience.

He keeps with the punk feel to start the show, a perfect opener in fact, the old Sebadoh track Gimme Indie Rock, sounding suitably shambolic and loose, the reference to Thurston Moore in the lyrics becoming even more relevant when he tells us later that he was talking to him before the show, so presumably Moore was also there in the audience (he does afterall live in London now).

In contrast he follows this with the far more gentle and poignant solo track, Repeat, which seems fitting for an acoustic show like this and sounds lovely and sweet. And then we got only one of two Dinosaur Jr songs, a rousing stripped down version Back To Your Heart, first heard on their comeback album Beyond. Of course I was excited to hear it and wondered if we might get more Dino gems in the show but the only other one was later on, when someone called for Poledo, from You're Living All Over Me, and Barlow kindly obliged. Before he also told the story about how the song came to be, when inspired by the likes of Expecting To Fly by Neil Young, and also "tripping fucking balls", he asked J. Mascis if he could do a song collage on the album they were working on and J surprised him by saying yes. It was a surprise inclusion and short but sweet. Apparently the night before he also played Repulsion, which I would have loved to have heard too, but it was great to hear this early Dinosaur song at least.

He then went way back to the beginning of the Sebadoh days with a duo of songs from the band's first album, The Freed Man, namely Punch In The Nose and Healthy Sick. I'm not so familiar with this early era of the band, but there were cries of approval from the dedicated fans in the audience. Thankfully he also gave us Magnet's Coil, License To Confuse, Rebound and Not A Friend, from maybe the band's most famous LP, Bakesale. Again it was interesting and refreshing to hear these noisy, indie tunes stripped down, becoming almost folk songs, proving that underneath the fuzz and attitude Barlow really is a fine songwriter.

Barlow talked about how it was almost a year to the day that he played London with his other band The Folk Implosion. I would have loved to have heard more from this band, but maybe because he had toured with them so recently, we only got one song from their comeback release, called Moonlit Kind.

Barlow was also very talkative throughout the night, often responding to comments from the audience and even laughing at funny remarks. One of the most interesting stories he told was about how there was a rumour going around in the 1990s, that one of Sebadoh's songs almost ended up in the TV show Friends for the scene where Ross and Rachel reunite. Eventually they ended up using a U2 song but he ponders where he would be now if they had used his tune "I'd probably be opening up for My Bloody Valentine!" he jokes, referring to the fact that J Mascis did just that last night at Wembley Arena. He then plays the song Willing To Wait, and I must say Friends would have been a hell of a lot cooler if it had used that track in the show! 

He also tells about how he met his wife Adele and the fact that she wasn't that aware of his music when they first got together, although she told him that an old friend had put one of Sebadoh's song on a mixtape (or CD?) he had made for her. Barlow pondered if this old friend had been in love with her but she insisted that he wasn't but Barlow said he could guess the song that was on that mix. Years later they were at Adele's parents' house and she found the mixtape and indeed the song Barlow had predicted was on it turned out to be It's So Hard To Fall In Love. "See, he was in love with you," he told her. He then plays the song which, he's right, is very romantic and all the better because Adele is here tonight (we see her later running the merch table).

Other highlights include when he plays the Dinosaur Jr song Garden, which he introduces by telling us that it's Dinosaur Jr's most streamed song, but then backtracks, slightly embarrassed, unsure if that's true (it's not actually true sadly!) but I was thrilled to hear it and if he only played it for that reason alone, I'm glad he was led to believe that!

Near the end he plays a song that he says was one of the first he ever wrote (he already regaled us with tales of when he still lived at home with his parents and worked the night shift at a care home, leaving him alone during the day to take drugs, listen to loud music and write music that ended up on the first Dinosaur Jr records), and laughs, telling us that he can divide his music between before and after when he lost his virginity. The song he plays, I Believe In Fate, is indeed an innocent and sweet ode to finding love, with Barlow singing "some girl I don't know is waiting to marry me." It's actually rather lovely.

I was also thrilled when he played an acoustic version of the song Flame, which I have good memories of them playing at the Astoria back in 1999. I'm not quite sure it worked as an acoustic song but I loved hearing it and it was funny seeing Barlow trying to remember how to play it and sometimes getting it wrong (he kept bursting into laughter as he worked it out), as he said it was the first time he had played it this tour. I remember so well seeing Sebadoh playing Flame on Top Of The Pops back in the day, a rare event to see a proper indie band on the prime-time pop-chart show. Barlow actually reminisces about it tonight, saying that all the pop acts got to mime but all the rock bands had to play live and their performance went surprisingly well. I definitely remember it that way! I'm sure it's probably on YouTube somewhere as it was definitely a cool moment.

After about 30 songs, he finally took his leave, but it was only briefly, as the crowd cheered for him to come back and to be fair he didn't make too much of a pretense about doing an encore. The final two tracks were the rather sweet solo song Caterpillar Girl, and finally, the song people had been requesting earlier and certainly one of his most beloved, Brand New Love, which was definitely a nice way to end the show.

Barlow was witty and charming throughout and surprisingly adept at the role of storytelling folk singer. Because I wasn't super familiar with a lot of his material, particularly the much older stuff and some of the recent offerings, I had wondered if the show would drag for me, but even playing over 30 songs with a lot of chatter inbetween, the show really did fly by and I left with a big grin on my face. So as something of a Barlow novice, this was certainly a wonderful introduction to Barlow's solo shows.