THE TWILIGHT SAD // USHER HALL, EDINBURGH
The Kilsyth band top off their most successful year with a triumphant and emotionally charged performance at a packed Usher Hall.
The Twilight Sad, The Usher Hall, Edinburgh 30.11.19
Photography by Calum Mackintosh
★★★★★ (5/5)
It’s been quite a year for the UK’s most underrated band. The start of the year saw the release of The Twilight Sad’s 5th Album - It Won/t Be Like This All the Time to universal critical acclaim and even found itself tipped as a contender for album of the year by those that know these things - in mid January!
Around the same time, founding members James Graham & Andy McFarlane played a series of acoustic ‘instores’. One these intimate shows was on the back stage of the Usher Hall in front of 200 or so fans stacked into the ornate choir gallery while the band played with the main hall behind them. That night, amongst the music and banter, James couldn’t resist turning his back to the audience and address an imaginary sea of adoring fans with a Springsteen style ‘Good evening Edinburgh!’. Oh how we laughed - like that was ever going to happen?
Fast forward 11 months, and we’re back at the same beautiful auditorium - only this time there’s 2000 more fans and we’re here to witness their biggest ever headline show and last date of an exhaustive World tour - from the proper side of the stage.
Appearing to a maelstrom of white noise and strobe lights it was straight into [10 Good Reasons for Modern Drugs], Shooting Dennis Hopper Shooting and the anthemic VTr. As he does throughout the whole show, vocalist James Graham gives over his whole body to the music - twisting, contorting and at several points in the show, lying flat out on the stage. He tells us “This is like a dream“, acknowledging just how much this means to him and the band. James took time to reflect on the journey that’s taken them from the back room of Bannermans Bar in 2007 to the here and now - even choking back the tears to thank friends, family and fans for their support and devotion over the years.
The majority of tonights’ set was drawn from It Won/t Be Like This All the Time and it’s in the live arena that these tracks truly stand out. On record, the production on Brendan Smith’s layered synths smooth out some of the harder edges of their signature sound. Live, these restrictions are gone and Andy McFarlane’s guitar unleashes a razor sharp wall of feedback and distortion that he weaves around the soaring vocal melodies that lie at the heart of Twilight Sad compositions. For the uninitiated - think stadium era Depeche Mode with added Mary Chain style feedback and NSFW lyrical content and it’ll give you some idea of what to expect.
The undoubted high point of the evening for most was the penultimate trio of Cold Days From the Birdhouse, The Wrong Car and, what is now a cornerstone of their set, a heartfelt rendition of Frightened Rabbit’s Keep Yourself Warm. It’s clear that Scott Hutchison’s untimely passing had a shared emotional impact on many here as 2200 voices joined in unison to pay tribute, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house by the closing bars.
Coming full circle with a raucous rendition of 2007’s And She Would Darken the Memory seemed like a fitting end to what was undoubtedly a landmark moment for this band. As the last wails of feedback washed around the venue James was left alone on stage, punching the air in triumph before collapsing to the stage. Spent. He couldn’t have given anymore. For all those there, we couldn’t have asked for anymore.
SETLIST: | THE TWILIGHT SAD : USHER HALL, EDINBURGH - 30.11.2019
[10 Good Reasons for Modern Drugs]
Shooting Dennis Hopper Shooting
VTr
Don't Move
Last January
That Summer, at Home I Had Become the Invisible Boy
The Arbor
I/m Not Here [Missing Face]
Sunday Day13
There's a Girl in the Corner
Seven Years of Letters
Auge/Maschine
Videograms
Let/s Get Lost
Cold Days From the Birdhouse
The Wrong Car
Keep Yourself Warm (Frightened Rabbit cover)
And She Would Darken the Memory