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Monday, November 17, 2003
So my brain is still buzzing from the Twilight Singers show last night... I'm still on some sort of Greg Dulli-induced high, and it's erasing the memory of anything I did before it. I mean, I know I did other stuff over the weekend, but right now I just can't seem to recall what. It's all about Dulli and the rock he and his band whipped out last night. Mid-November and he gives us the show of the year.
At last, the Afghan Whigs gig I never got to see, and it was better than I ever thought it would be. I'd missed them too many times... up in Vermont there weren't many (read: any) chances to see 'em, and they sadly disappeared before I moved to Boston. After last night, I feel like something that was missing has been finally found. Reading and hearing for so many years what a performer Dulli is, how great the Whigs were live, Amie telling me about the times she'd seen them ... and how this time was even better. She was ready to hop on the Fung Wah just to see them play again tonight in NYC, and she'd be on her way if that show wasn't already sold out. I mean, what a performance. I've never heard a sound so huge inside TTs before. The guys he's got on the road with him are so right on, they helped him exceed any expectations I had for the night. The Twilight Singers songs were fleshed out, more rockin', brighter, fuller, and more powerful than the new album. A few Afghan songs made surprising, intoxicating appearances, either in full or in part. Covers and mini-medleys worked their way in, reinterpretations or straightforward versions of a wide variety of stuff. Prince (Dulli spoke of seeing the movie "Purple Rain" in 1984, then broke into that song), Outkast (They actually covered "Hey Ya", which transformed itself into the Whigs "66" from "1965"), Derek & the Dominos (They perfectly played the whole piano outro from "Layla"), Marvin Gaye ("I only wish I could sing like Marvin", Dulli said.), John Coltrane (covering "A Love Supreme"). After some very touching words, he dedicated "Martin Eden" (the first song from "Blackberry Belle") to Elliott Smith, whom he called a friend ("When I heard the news, I didn't think of his music, or his life... I thought about his last, lonely five minutes... "), and dedicated another song to departed director Ted Demme. He spoke of Steve McQueen, The Darkness (Dulli sez : "My favorite new band..."), Apollonia, and even broke into a spontaneous mockery of Jim Morrison. He was all over the map... emotional, dirty, empathetic, and irreverant all at once. He said they'd be back "in a couple months". Wherever it is, and it will no doubt be in a bigger club, it's gonna sell out again. Every person in the place will be back, and so will every single friend they can drag. Amie just called me to ask where our new Twilight Singers disc is ... she can't stop thinking about last night either, and is loading her car's cd changer with "Blackberry Belle" and four Whigs albums. It's gonna be a Dulli kind of day, for the both of us ...  |
 neil halstead live in cambridge, ma on november 14th, 2008 previously: joy formidable - boston 2011 recent posts on the 'nac...
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