The Twilight Sad – 100 Club, London 27/03/08

“I hope you all enjoyed the 2 opening bands. They were great I thought, weren’t they?”.

It should be noted that James Graham says this opening statement with his tongue very much in his cheek. There were no support acts this evening and although the crowd were pretty patient, it feels somewhat odd to see the band take to the stage without a warm-up act or two.

Not to worry. It’ll be an evening of pure unadulterated Twilight Sad and I knew exactly what to expect. I think it’s safe to say that the Fat Cat released Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters was without doubt, one of my (and The Line Of Best Fit’s) favourite records of 2007. When I caught them at Bush Hall (with Nina Nastasia and Welcome) and Hoxton Bar & Grill last year, they were amongst my pick of shows from the year. I found myself particularly enchanted by their menacing guitars that shimmer and grind created by Andy MacFarlane, where the epic sorrow cranks up to one monumental wall of noise after another, all pinned down by James Graham’s anguished howl, reminiscent of a more violent and passionate Aiden Moffat, but who can actually hold a tune.

Opening with the frantic ‘Talking with Fireworks/Here, It Never Snowed’, Graham takes a drumstick and accompanies Mark Devine on drums, creating a thunderous bombardment of crashing cymbals, the 2-hour wait is soon forgotten. The “Hit Single” (as written on the set list but also known as ‘That Summer, at Home I Had Become the Invisible Boy’) follows with it’s frighteningly haunting lyric of “The kids are on fire in the bedroom!”.

‘And She Would Darken the Memory’ opens with a chime of guitars where Devine underlines the track with his precise drum-march and the motionless figure of Craig Orzel plucks out fuzzed out and heavy bass lines to Graham’s cry of “Because I’m putting up with your constant whine and I won’t last too long. And friendly faces with put on smiles…” sounds painfully poignant.

They end with my personal favourite couplets of the swirling ‘I’m Taking The Train Home’ (the refrain of “And your green eyes turn to blue” over the achingly euphoric waves of noise simply gets me every single time.) and ‘Cold Days From the Birdhouse’, complete with a spine-tingling solo acapella intro.

The concert didn’t last too long. About around the 50 minute mark. Not quite long enough for a customary main headline act, but not too short that the crowd felt unsatisfied. Anything more and it would possibly have felt like an anti-climax. But there was something unquestionably exhilarating about this kind of racket as it hurtles towards you from the stage and makes you want to start a riot, destroying everything.

For a band who specialise in peaks, they are still very much in the ascendancy.

Links
The Twilight Sad [official site] [myspace]