Kilsyth alt-rockers The Twilight Sad kicked off their UK tour in style by raising the roof of a former church with tunes that could rival the devil's best.
Following an outstanding turn by art-pop renegade Adam Stafford, The Twilight Sad opened with the menacing disco-rock of recent single Kill it in the Morning. It made for a searing introduction to a set that previewed several tracks from the band’s forthcoming third studio album, No One Can Ever Know. On the evidence thus far, the new record is set to thrill – from the electro-pulse and Cure-evoking melancholy of Sick to the brooding, defiant dance-floor challenge of Don’t Move (try not to jig along to its Joy Division groove and post-punk dissonance. It is impossible).
While their new material goes heavier on synthesisers, industrial music and early electro than its predecessors (with particular nods to Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails and Cabaret Voltaire), the Twilight Sad’s enduring, cacophonous charms held true in Dundee: graphic lyrical narratives, a formidable Scots voice, and a deep-set sense of melody distinguished old and new songs alike.
The Jean-Luc Godard referencing I Became a Prostitute, from 2009’s Forget the Night Ahead, played out like the most exhilarating, under-rated alt-rock anthem of recent years, while the tub-thumping parable of That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy, from 2007’s Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters, served as a reminder that beneath the Twilight Sad’s compelling sonic force, there lies a fierce power in James Graham’s words.
The front-man’s performance of their signature aria, Cold Days from the Birdhouse, was customarily stunning: his brawny silhouette and nigh-on superhuman lungs define Graham as an arresting rock deity.
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