Punters were in for a sweaty night at the Garage – the whole venue stank of beer and body odour, nice! Ah well, everyone was in the same boat, and by the end of the stunning opening act from JEFF KLEIN, pretty much everyone was drenched, but the general mood was gleeful and no-one seemed to mind. Needless to say, it was highly pointless for the ladies to put make-up on in a venue like that, unless they genuinely wanted to end up looking like Alice Cooper.
It’s worth taking time out to mention that Jeff Klein is an artist definitely worth checking out. Having already toured with the likes of Joseph Arthur (phwarrr), he is building quite a reputation on the alternative music circuit, with his twisted brand of Americana, meshed with some hard blues, petulant tantrums (screaming lyrics like “If you break my heart/ I’ll break every single bone in your body/ Cause I’m just as sick as you”), and general technical wizardry coupled with jagged, powerful vocals. And he has an enviable moustache. Not for this writer though. I’m a lady. Aanyway…
Greg Dulli (formerly of the Afghan Whigs) in his band, THE TWILIGHT SINGERS opened their live set with the mighty, mighty “I’m Ready” (the recording of which, incidentally, features Joseph Arthur [phwarrrr] on backing vocals), and thereby continued to pelt a load of Visceral Power Rock for the next hour or so. Dulli’s charismatic performance and stellar work from the other band members really transported the audience out of the black, stuffy and moist surroundings to somewhere just as black and moist, but considerably less stuffy – what a fab method of escapism.
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The Twilight Singers new album is a dark, and highly personal affair, and Dulli didn’t hold back on his conviction during this performance, which was quite touching in parts. The evening had a genuine sense of the epic about it, Greg Dulli inspires hero-worship from his devoted fans, and its easy to see why. Utilizing the grungy hard rock from his earlier work, with years of hard life experience, and the end result is pretty darn powerful. Highlights of the set were undoubtedly "I'm Ready", and the heart-wrenching "There's Been An Accident", it was so easy to get caught up in it all. These dudes really know what they're doing. [OMG, I just wrote the word 'Dude', see what they did to me?!]
By the end of their performance, punters left The Garage sopping wet and weak at the knees. And so a marvellous night was had by all.
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