Twilight Singers – Brighton Komedia 21/3/2011
I’ve been a fan of Greg Dulli for a long time from back in the day when the Afghan Whigs were bringing a little soul to the SubPop label, to his recent collaborations with Mark Lanegan and of course, The Twilight Singers. Sadly I never had the chance to see the Afghan Whigs live, so my hopes were high that this would be the next best thing.
As far as venues go, The Komedia was pretty sweet, a fairly intimate room located downstairs, with reasonably priced drinks. I was pleasantly surprised to get a huge handful of change back with my beverages, far from what I was expecting from recent live outings! On the subject of value, it was also excellent to see a venue running it’s own ticketing online and being able to buy .pdf tickets with a booking fee of only 50p; it certainly makes like TicketMaster etal look like the gouging thieves they really are!
The setlist was a fairly even split across Powder Burns, Blackberry Belle & Dynamite Steps. The inclusion of violin live added a nice extra level to an already robust sound and performance. I found most songs had a great frantic energy to them, check out the footage of Esta Noche below for an example of how ‘big’ a fairly lowkey track from Powder Burns can sound in a small club!
Dulli’s vocals? Yeah, I’m happy to report he’s still cutting it live, and his performance was as soulful as any previous performance I’ve seen on youtube or heard on CD. I was intrigued to see what Dulli’s on stage persona was going to be like, so it was a pleasure to see someone onstage who obviously loves what he does, and certainly being appreciative of a small but loyal audience.
Standout tracks for me were unsurprisingly Esta Noche, Bonnie Brae, Teenage Wristband and She Was Stolen.
I’ll be the first to admit that if the Whigs reformed I’d spend a ridiculous amount of money to see them live, but thankfully for my bank account the Twilight Singers fill that musical void very well indeed.
