— Greg Dulli, last night @ Twilight Singers Concert
Ever since hearing about the Twilight Singers show @ Southgate House I was going back and forth as to whether or not I wanted to make the 90 minute drive to see it. With so many other shows going on in town, I thought this one might be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
And then our friend Tankboy reviews the Chicago show and it sounded so good that we decided that we must go. Me and Areila packed up the car with Billy and Keith and headed out into the pouring rain.
We made it to the show around the same time the opening act, The Staggering Statistics (featuring ex-Whig bassist), hit the stage. We casually watched the show from the balcony, and they were good, I guess. Nothing too bad, nothing too good, just a band standing in the way of the Twilight Singers.
After their set we made our way downstairs to get a better view. The crowd was swelling by then, packing up to every wall with little breathing room. Cincinnatti wanted to see their hometown hero. They wouldn’t be let down.
After close to an hour of waiting, the Twilight Singers finally hit the stage. And it’s live that I think I fully appreciated the band. While I enjoy the albums, the live show added another dimension to the music, something more that I didn’t see before. The Twilight Singers aren’t the Afghan Whigs, and that’s okay. They’re more like the downtempo cousin of the band, rocking harder but with beats that are just a little slower, just a little quieter, than the Whigs.
Oh yeah… For me, the keyboards are the star of the live show. It’s rare to hear a band use keys so prominently, and with the Singers it makes perfect sense.
Halfway through the set Dulli was talking about the bar he owns in Los Angeles. He said in the beginning not many people came, but he had one regular who would show up every night around 1AM, sometimes with his girlfriend, sometime without. They wouldn’t talk to each other, but instead would just give each other curious stares. Then one night this guy goes to Greg and says, “Are you Greg Dulli?” and he says, “Yeah, are you Elliott Smith?” And from there the two struck up a friendship. Greg then told the crowd to work out any problems they might have, and people love them… He dedicated “Martin Eden” to him. A really emotional moment.
There was a lot of great Dulli dialogue, but some things are just best experienced on your own. He also mixed a few songs into his own. Highlights were the Beatles and “Hey Ya” by Outkast.
The second encore of the evening was when all hell broke loose. Dulli invited old Afghan Whigs members onstage and played about 3-4 Afghan Whigs songs. The crowd went nuts. The band was visibly happy. It was a perfect moment. Standing there, seeing Dulli in front oh his hometown crowd, I thought to myself, this is why I love music.
On the ride back to Columbus (we got in @ 3AM, ugh), I was thinking about Dulli and how, these days, there’s not many musicians who exude the same amount of confidence and cool like Dulli. Billy Peake said it’s because the confidence goes against a lot of indie rock traditions, and he might be right. Whatever the case, Dulli is certainly one of a kind, and whether he’s working with the Twilight Singers or with the Whigs, it’s music worth paying attention to.
PS: The Afghan Whigs songs played were: Uptown Again, Crazy, 66 and Faded.