The Twilight Sad, London Scala - 29/10/2009

Having been at Kings Cross’ Scala just two days previous for what may have been the most fun gig of the year (Dananananaykroyd), it was a strange feeling to be returning knowing that the bands of the evening were of a considerably more depressing nature. I knew it would be a strange contrast, but it would be worth it; though melancholic, the Twilight Sad’s use of layer and texture has always stood out, making them markedly unique in what they do. Admittedly this has caused problems the previous times I’ve seen them, with the sound-man struggling to get them sounding just right. Hopefully tonight’s gig won’t end up falling to the same problems.

Having checked out the first support, Talons, on Myspace the evening before and being blown away by their new spilt-single with ‘And So I Watch You From Afar’ from Bethlehem, I left earlier to make sure I got there on time. Unfortunately things conspired against me (thanks, First Buses) and I arrived just before the start of the last song. What I was met with though has made me want to see this band again as soon as possible; an instrumental blast of heavy yet somehow melodic rock, led by two violin players. After playing for about 7 minutes and getting a wall of sound into the song the band thanked the audience and left the stage.

As second support, Airship, took to the stage the crowd at Scala still seemed oddly empty, and I was starting to fear that it would be a low turnout for the Twilight Sad. Airship seem to have been getting around a bit supporting fairly big bands in the London scene right now; along with the likes of Marmaduke Duke and Frightened Rabbit recently. They’ve always been a tight band, playing a noisy brand of pop music which is always good to listen to. Tonight was no different, the band running through a set of poppy yet interesting songs; huge amounts of reverb driving the guitar through. Airship definitely have the desire to get far, and seem to be well on the way to being a band everyone will know soon enough.

I turned around to see a considerably full Scala just in time for the noise that awaited them (maybe Londoners really are too busy until late or maybe people just don’t want to see the support bands). They then took to the stage to start their sonic assult, guitarist Andy MacFarlane’s heavily delay layered guitar colliding with current live member Martin Docherty’s keyboard sounds.

One of the most notable things about seeing the Twilight Sad is that they do appear to actually feel every emotion you’d expect to feel from the songs, for the most part you could actually see tears in the eyes of vocalist James Graham as the lyrics left his mouth. It’s really amazing to see just how much the music physically affects the band. By the time they played the very memorable ‘Cold Days From The Birdhouse’ from 2007’s debut ‘Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters’ parts of the audience were singing along gently, while the rest of the audience swayed from side to side.

The audience seemed to cheer a bit louder for recent single ‘I Became A Prostitute’, as James continued to pour his heart out. It’s an odd sight to see at times; he’s a tall guy with a skinhead and yet the amount of emotion emitted from his mouth is spectacular.

As the band reached the end of their set, the already noisy sound reached a new level with a deafening wall of sound lasting over ten minutes, which made me thankful for my having my ear plugs in my bag. There were people in the audience who clearly didn’t enjoy the assault, but it was a great end to a great, although admittedly emotional evening. I won’t lie, there were parts where I had tears in my eyes, but when you’re writing music like this isn’t that the idea?

I feel after my comment about terrible sound at previous gigs the team at Scala deserve a word of praise for doing a damn good job, as it was near flawless that evening. If you get the chance to see Twilight Sad, do so; it’s an experience different and more than anything else.