The Gutter Twins @ Birmingham Glee Club – 9th April 2008

There is no support for tonight’s gig, which makes waiting for The Gutter Twins all the more frustrating. Heightened by the lights being dimmed ridiculously early, there is a distinct air of impatience, smell of sweat and vast amounts of “for fuck’s sake”. The Gutter Twins are led by two of Sub Pop’s most enigmatic frontmen, Greg Dulli from Afghan Whigs and Mark Lanegan from Screaming Trees, supported predominantly by the rest of Dulli’s other project The Twilight Singers. Admittedly, I am a Laneganite through and through, believing everything his dark, deep, gravel-driven vocals touch, turns to gold, namely his immense solo work and collaborations with the likes of Isobel Campbell, Soulsavers and Queens of the Stone Age. His recent involvement in The Gutter Twins was hinted at with The Twilight Singers EP ‘A Stitch in Time’ and his appearance on their last tour of the UK, which I was lucky enough to catch in Manchester. So when they announced the tour dates prior to releasing the album and I saw they were due to play Birmingham’s Glee Club, I knew it was a show to buy tickets for.

When the band finally appeared on stage, you have to notice the irony of seeing Mark Lanegan, probably the darkest figure in rock, standing in front of a big sign that says Glee whilst singing about lost love and the depths of drug addiction, but that just adds to the atmosphere. The Gutter Twins’ set starts with ‘The Stations’, the opening track of the album ‘Saturnalia’, instantly the crowd’s murmuring died down and all eyes and ears are fully focused on the stage. Lanegan’s vocals tonight are typically awesome and spine chilling, in turn, the rest of the band are a tight well functioning unit of individually talented musicians, including the likes of Jeff Klein on keyboards and guitar. The momentum presented by the opening track doesn’t fade at any point throughout the set as they work their way through most of the album, demonstrating their range of musical styles from the heavy groove of Idle Hands to the dark ballad of Front Streets via the outstanding Live With Me from the earlier Twilight Singers EP. Dulli, being the spokesperson for the band, keeps the banter going with the crowd, whilst he changes instruments from guitar to piano claiming that Lanegan wasn’t a legend to him just a cigarette thief! At a few key moments in the set where Lanegan and Dulli sing harmonies together, Dulli’s vocal tuning was slightly flat but the two seem aware of the problem and work together to redeem the situation, resulting in an amazing performance.

After a blinding set, the crowd wait patiently for an encore, with the occasional shouts from some over zealous Dulli fans. After, no doubt, a crafty fag or seven, The Gutter Twins return to the stage, with Dulli’s antics causing the rare event of a Lanegan smile. Our patience was repaid with an awesome thirty minute encore that started with The Twilight SIngers’ ‘Papillon’ which segued into very surprising rendition of Screaming Trees track ‘Shadow of the Season’. This placed me on tenterhooks waiting to hear which back catalogue gem was next to follow, and I was not disappointed. The band played their way through a number of both The Twilight SIngers and Lanegan’s solo material completing the evening with the powerful Methamphetamine Blues. The Gutter Twins left the stage, leaving my ears ringing but having loved every single minute and looking forward to the next time I will see such a powerful performance.

Review – Toni Woodward
Photos – Steve Gerrard

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