The Twilight Sad
4/9/07
The Subterranean in Chicago
I love Scotland and what I love even more are bands where the lead singer is unabashedly Scottish to the point you start recalling random paragraphs out of Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting. Such is the case of the up and coming Scottish band, The Twilight Sad, who apparently might be playing a Pitchfork tent near you. Lead singer James Graham poses like he grew up studying Morrissey while the songs accompanied with a somewhat caustic shoegaze quality cast musical shadows around him and his mic as he moves it all across the stage. And make no mistake about this: The Twilight Sad are rather adequately named. The Morning Happy just wouldn’t suit their sound as they sing about a heart wrenched anguish that would cause even fans of emo to feel a new sense of stricken moroseness.
Oddly enough, I thought of two people while watching The Twilight Sad play: Nick Urata of DeVotchKa because of the particular bullet mic that is used and Eddie Argos because of the pacing. Both references are somewhat ill fitting however. He has the passion of Nick Urata but the instrumentation is much different without that theremin, tuba, and accordion. There’s also a little absence of melody live and the sacrifice will be well worth it to those who want an explosion of sound instead. He is also much less pop oriented and ironic in a fun way than Argos of British band Art Brut. The lyrics are the stuff of Hamlet soliloquys instead of anthemic songs about Emily Kane. This isn’t the band of catchy but more the band of deep dark emotional brooding set to pedal effects that would survive a nuclear war. The heavy guitar, bass, and drumming (James took to the drums himself at times) added a heaviness not for the likes of those in the mood to hear pop or twee. These guys are more interested in getting you to feel their agony than getting you to dance and sing along. A more fitting comparison music wise would be early Idlewild (think 100 Broken Windows and before that.) with an even heavier Scottish accent.
April 17th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
I’ve really been getting into this record a lot, to the point where I’m kicking myself for not making it out to the show.
April 17th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
It was a good one esp. because of A Northern Chorus-I haven’t seen you in far too long, my friend
April 18th, 2007 at 7:57 am
Yeah…A Northern Chorus would be another reason. Great band. The night before on Easter, I was on my way out to meet friends but I stopped by Schubas to catch Airiel’s performance as I hadn’t seen them in quite some time and it was an earlier one. I thought maybe I’d bump into you guys there but it sounds like you might not have even been in town. One of these days, one of these shows…