The Twilight Singers at Concrete

The Twilight Singers

Concrete, 16 March 2011

I luckily won tickets through a competition on Q Magazine's website to see The Twilight Singers at a tiny exclusive gig at Concrete, a small venue in the basement of Pizza East in Shoreditch. Needless to say it was incredible and Greg Dulli was in top form.

You know it's funny, until Dulli mentioned on stage that this was the first time the band had played live in five years, I hadn't even realised that it had been so long since The Twilight Singers last toured. I guess between all the shows with The Gutter Twins and Mark Lanegan I had still been getting my Greg Dulli live fix. But still, while it's undoubtedly the Dulli show, there is something special that happens when Greg gets together with the rest of the Twilights. Lucky us then that London got not just one, but two shows, to kick off their comeback tour in support of the fantastic new record Dynamite Steps.

The bigger show at the Electric Ballroom was announced a couple of months back but the smaller gig at Concrete was a complete surprise. Announced just a week before on the Q Magazine website, it was competition winners only (with a nice bonus of a free bar) held in a tiny basement underneath Pizza East in Shoreditch. I had never been there before but it must only about 150 people, a pretty intimate way to see The Twilight Singers make their comeback, certainly the smallest venue I've ever seen them play. Still I secured a prime spot in front of the stage so I would have the perfect view of Dulli and the boys in their element.

I don't know what it is about Greg Dulli but ever since I first discovered his previous band, The Afghan Whigs, I've been pretty much a devotee of everything he does. Dulli always stood out from the grunge pack that he and his band were lumped into, he was more suave for one thing with a devilish grin that certainly wasn't angst-filled or apathetic, like many of his peers, although the music could be dark and tortured, and most importantly it sounded like he had a whole stack of soul records he was spinning between the usual rock suspects. Of course Dulli too had his demons, The Afghan Whigs' most famous record, Gentlemen, was stained by his self-loathing and regrets while the previous Twilight Singers' album, Powder Burns, was a detailed account of his battle with drug addiction. Dulli's songs are often seedy, nicotine-stained affairs, but that's why we love him: he's not afraid to let you into his darkest moments and he does it with amazing charm. People seem to either love or hate him and most people I know are of the latter persuasion, so it's nice to be at a show in the company of others who also worship at the altar of Dulli.

For the past few years when Dulli has walked on stage I'm usually a little shocked by his out of shape appearance, I guess I expect him to look how he did back in the 90s. But he did go through a period where he looked awful, like he had put on a lot of weight and was suffering some health problems, which of course we learned later was his battle with drugs. This time though I'm pleasantly surprised. He's looks better than he has in ages, slimmer, healthier and much younger, it's cool to see. He also appears to have a hell of a lot more energy. When he was drinking he could be hilarious and half the fun of seeing Dulli live back then was the banter between songs. Now he doesn't talk as much (although he does deliver a couple of classic quips, the best being when someone asks who he is after he introduces the band and he sneers "You know my fucking name!"), but he rocks out more, with that cool swagger of his, like an old time soul star.

The set was heavy on songs from the new album, which I wasn't complaining about since the new album is probably my favourite so far this year: Last Night In Town, She Was Stolen, the incredible Gunshots, a brilliant cover of Don't Call, by dance act Desire, turning it from something that wouldn't be out of place on a La Roux album into something Dulli could have written himself, a late night, yearning piano piece played like it was the last number at an empty bar as it was closing. Powder Burns was well represented too, the songs still sounding fresh, maybe because they hadn't been played in so long and the band sounding enthused that they were finally getting to jam on them again.

Rather nicely the whole thing ended on a cover Brain by The Action with Dulli and drummer Bobby Macintyre and managing to keep the beat while singing the mod anthem. At the end he even threw us his drumstick (which we delightedly caught) and was the cherry on the cake. Definitely a fantastic night.