I’ve seen The Twilight Sad on at least four occasions and each time they have proven to be one of the most sullen and grumpy acts I’ve ever encountered.
And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
In the same way that you’d hate to discover cheeky chappy Keith Chegwin actually chain-smoked roll-ups and pushed grannies off pavements, if The Twilight Sad rocked up on stage in day-glo t-shirts, high-fiving the front row and launching into a chant of “when I say ‘Twilight’, you say ‘Sad’!”, they would lose some of their keenly-constructed mystique. If there was a gig where they didn’t get angry about the levels or conditions on stage, I’d feel short-changed.
Their music is beautifully bleak and sparse; epic in the true sense of the word rather than as in “that was an epic cheeky Nandos”. On that point, it would also be disappointing to find that The Twilight Sad had even walked past a Nandos, such is their pitch-perfect aloofness.
Their 2007 debut album Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters remains my favourite of their records but there have been three more studio efforts since then that are all worth checking out. You’ll find comparisons with Joy Division and compatriots Frightened Rabbit, which are understandable but also way off-mark. You need to check out these grumpy geniuses for yourselves to get the full picture. Here’s a taster:
The Twilight Sad tour dates:
- Wed 9th Dec – O2 Academy, Birmingham
- Thur 10th Dec – Gorilla, Manchester
- Sat 12th Dec – Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow.
I’m still debating whether their music is a little too bleak for the Alternative Toddler Playlist, but I’ll test it out all the same.
they tour with The Cure next year
What a bill!