The Gutter Twins

A first I am confused as to where everyone is for this sold out gig, as the place is pretty empty. With no support and the main band to start at 9pm (the doors opened at 7.30pm) this soon becomes clear. Who wants to stand about in a pretty small room watching an empty stage for over an hour?

The masses soon arrive from the bar downstairs however, but the twins from the gutter are nowhere to be seen for another twenty minutes. The lighting is dark and moody, just right for The Gutter Twins brand of twisted moody blues.

This much anticipated tour follows the recent release of their first album as this pairing, 'Saturnalia' (which could be named after a number of things, a Roman festival celebrating Saturn, a slim dinosaur, a science fiction comic or a number of novels). They have worked together many times before; most notably in the excellent Twilight Singers, but this gives them a chance to work solely together, and has been in the pipeline for five years.



The pairing of two of Seattle's greats (Greg Dulli of Afghan Wings and Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees and countless other projects) could not work better. Whereas is it now common knowledge not to expect anything other than singing from Lanegan on stage, Dulli moves about enough for the pair of them.

Lanegan is a dark and moody looking character, standing tall, all dressed in black and pretty much motionless throughout the show, except to announce his old friend's name. Dulli (who sang the main part in the soundtrack to the "5th Beatles" film 'Backbeat' with other huge grunge names Moore, Grohl, Mills, Fleming and Pirner), is lacking a little with the high pronounced notes, but the softer singing is spot on.

Dulli also has to talk for both of them, as many collaborators of Lanegan's tell their audiences (Isobel Campbell once said at a Leeds show "He won't say anything to you!"). There is a surprising (but fully understandable) outburst from Dulli after performing their beautiful cover of Massive Attack's 'Live With Me' at two girls in the crowd. They are filming the show on their camera, which Dulli obviously hates.

"Turn that camera off, if I see a red light again I'm kicking you out. Memories are stored in you head not on a camera; you're not even watching the show!" Good on him I say, as too many people are recording degraded video with shit sound for the You Tube generation. What's the point in being there to watch it through a tiny screen and hold the camera up blocking somebody else's view. Ban 'em I say (though that would be difficult as cameras should be allowed still, just not crappy fuzzy video recorders). Don't worry though, as Dulli invites the girls to clap hands and make up later in the set.



There's other covers lining the setlist, which sits in the same way as the album layout. Performing many covers means one of two things, either you have no songs of you own / are a tribute act / have no songwriting skills and leech off other and fool nobody, or you have an extensive back catalogue and could play your own but choose to experiment now you can afford to. These two fall in the latter. The cover of Jose Gonzalez’'s 'Down The Line' (they must like him, as the original version of his hit 'Heartbeats' by The Knife blasts over the speaker before the show) is a hit, as is Sam&Dave's 'Hold On, I'm Coming'.

There's treats from both performer's past work, such as The Twilight Singer's 'Papillion', 'King Only' and 'Number 9', as well as Lanegan's 'Hit The City' and 'Methamphetamine Blues'. There’s even a few lines from the Screaming Tree's song 'Shadow Of the Season' mixed into the encore, raising more than a few cheers.

The touring band is well represented too, with bassist Scott Ford (Twilight Singers), Danny Bland (Cat Butt, Dwarves) on guitar with David Rosser (Twilight Singers), well known keyboardist Jeff Klein and drummer Cully Symington (Bishop Allen, Zookeeper).



It is Lanegan who rules the stage however; even given all Dulli's movement and musical ability, he looms tall over the stage, a sense of fear would not be uncommon for those in the crowd who do not know his style (which to be fair is probably nobody). There's no mistaking that baritone whiskey soaked growl, and Dulli's rough coated harmonies sound superb over the swirling darkness of their melodic output. Very deep, very low light and very exciting; it's hard to imagine that these two can do any wrong.

The Stations
God's Children
All Misery / Flowers
Live With Me
Seven Stories Underground
Idle Hands
Bête Noire
Down The Line
I Was In Love With You
St James Infirmary Blues
Blackberry Bell
Each To Each
Front Street

Hold On, I'm Coming
Papillion
Hit The City
King Only
Methamphetamine Blues
Number 9

FUTURE GIGS

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