The Twilight Sad – XOYO, London 7/10/2010

You may recall that, around about this time last year, I was getting rather giddy about The Twilight Sad’s latest record, declaring Forget the Night Ahead to be a landmark album of its time, comparable in its era-encompassing powers to indie masterpieces The Soft Bulletin and Kid A. A few weeks later, I was busy listing their debut as one of the top ten releases of the last ten years, helping it to its final place on our end-of-decade list. This is one of the most under-rated and most important bands of recent times, and this was to be the first time I would seen them live. I was excited.

It’s important to remember that this is, essentially, a noise-rock band, with perhaps more overtly and permissively pop elements than many of their more esoteric peers. It’s a tension that, on record, works hugely to the band’s advantage. Their songs sound like they’re battling with themselves, occupying the exact middle ground between the noise of, say, Mogwai, and the more hook-based sensibilities of their label-mates Frightened Rabbit.

Their live show poses something of a problem, because half the tension comes from guitarist / songwriter / producer Andy MacFarlane’s excellent production work behind the desk. Without that considerable advantage, the band decide to go all out – their live show is a cacophony of noise that barely lets up for the full hour they’re on stage. Comparatively speaking  - somewhat bizarrely –  with the industrial-techno-dance-noise-core-whateverthefuck of Fuck Buttons.

The problem for me is that I love the dynamic of the songs on the record. I actually feel like if this was the first I’d known of The Twilight Sad, or even if their songs weren’t so freaking good, I’d have been utterly blown away by the set, but I couldn’t help but be slightly disappointed that Graham’s lyrics were often obscured by the rest of his band, that the surprisingly infectious melodies of their songs were essentially expunged from the set, and the fact that, in order to maintain the blistering atmosphere, they were forced to leave out some of the quieter but more affecting moments from Forget the Night Ahead such as ‘The Room’ and ‘Floorboards Under the Bed’.

It’s testament to the band’s already startlingly good catalogue that they’re able to produce a live set that leaves out two singles from the latest record (the aforementioned ‘The Room’ and album opener ‘Reflections of the Television’), it’s also testament to them that in what was still a damn fine set, I couldn’t help but wish for even more. Special mention should go to James Graham’s terrifying stage presence, though, which at times – particularly toward the end when, during ‘Made to Disappear’, he lowered his mic and just stared menacingly at the audience for a good two minutes – I found hard to tell whether it was an act / he was a genuine psychopath / he was genuinely on fuckloads of pills. Whichever, it added a real sense of terror to lyrics such as “the kids are on fire in the bedroom.”

In the aforementioned end-of-year list, Daniel Offen wrote that “The Twilight Sad find their strength in the control they have over the chaos they are able to produce.” It’s a fair assessment of their sound on record, but live, the chaos certainly wins out.