BY ANTHONY D'AMATO

The most striking thing about Great Lake Swimmers' set last week at New York's Bowery Ballroom was perhaps the last thing you might expect to discover at a concert: the power of silence. On their opening song, "Let's Trade Skins," the Canadian folk rockers made the most of sparse arrangements, allowing vocal and instrumental melodies to frequently fade out mid-song into the warm spring night. Captivated by the ethereal harmonies of frontman Tony Dekker and keyboard player Julie Fader, the crowd was hushed, even reverent during these moments of silence, and the effect was remarkable. It's not often that such a sense of tranquility descends onto the Lower East Side.

The show featured an even mix of old and new from the Great Lake Swimmers, who just released their latest record, Lost Channels, on March 31^st, and were recently profiled by BLURT. Tracks from their first two albums like "Various Stages" and "Moving Pictures Silent Films" were well received by an American audience that doesn't frequently find the band performing in their city, but the newer tunes offered the generally mellow band a chance to crank the volume up a bit. Banjo player Erik Arnesen switched to electric guitar for "Changing Colours" from 2007's Ongiara and kept the energy up on "Palmistry" and "She Comes to Me in Dreams" off of the new album. There were times that you couldn't help but yearn for the band to open up and really kick things into a higher gear, but there was no denying the stark beauty in their subdued nature.

Dekker performed a mini solo acoustic set in the middle of the show, offering up a stunning rendition of "Concrete Heart," a song written after the Toronto organization soundaXis requested a piece about the city's architecture. "This is the place where I felt / like the world's tallest self-supporting tower / Or maybe number two / At least for a little while anyway," sang Dekker, pausing between each qualification for a laugh and ultimately a cheer from fellow Canadians in the audience who appreciated his reference to Toronto's iconic but aging CN Tower. The band returned for the rest of the set after Dekker performed "Merge, A Vessel, A Harbour" from Great Lake Swimmers' 2005 self-titled debut.

The highlights of the show arrived near the end, with the uptempo pairing of "Pulling on a Line," Lost Channels' first single, and Ongiara's standout, "Your Rocky Spine," a love letter to the rugged terrain of the band's native country. "Floating over your rocky spine / the glaciers made you and now you're mine," sang Dekker in his wonderfully breathy voice. Hopefully he develops a similar affection for the States; he could teach American bands a thing or two about the power of silence while he's here.