TWILIGHT LIVE
I’ve been a Greg Dulli fan since the days of THE AFGHAN WHIGS so,
naturally, I’ve followed his solo endeavors and his latest work with
THE TWILIGHT SINGERS. The band recently released a DVD of one of their
concerts through Infernal Recordings and I got the chance to watch it
last night.
This DVD,
Twilight – Live!,
was originally a bootleg shot by a few friends at a performance by the
Twilight Singers at the historic Southgate House in Newport, Kentucky.
The performance took place on April 6, 2004 and had been circulating
through underground sources until Dulli got his hands on it and thought
it was good enough to be officially released by the band.
The disc starts off as a one-camera shoot while the Dulli gets
a cocktail ready for the show and the band begins playing “Decatur
St.”. During the middle of the song, the camera view shifts and I
became aware that this was a 4-5 camera shoot. A spectacular
accomplishment, the bootleggers were able to capture great footage from
several different locations, including a raised camera above Dulli’s
left shoulder.
The band tears through their own tracks, including “Martin Eden” and
“Esta Noche” while also playing “All You Need Is Love” by the BEATLES
and “Stranglehold” by Ted Nugent. They close their 14-song set with a
fan-favorite from their 2004 covers album, She Loves You, “Black is the
Color…”
The show didn’t end then, however, as the Twilight Singers
took to the stage for an encore. During the first of two encores the
band plays ABBA’s “Dancing Queen,” OUTKAST’s hip-hop hit “Roses,” and a
track from 2003’s Blackberry Belle called “The Killer”.
The second encore brings about a huge reaction from the crowd. Dulli
presents former-Afghan Whigs bandmate John Curley, who will play bass
for the last four songs. The band breaks into Whigs hits “My Curse,”
“Don’t Fear the Reaper/Uptown Again,” and “Somethin’ Hot”. They close
with, as writer Charles Fontaine called “the greatest song ever to
close with,” “Faded” from 1996’s Black Love.
To be footage that was shot as a bootleg, this DVD is
phenomenal. The entire performance and production was well done. There
wasn’t any soundboard work done, which leaves the performance
completely as it was for the audience that attended the show. Twilight
– Live! is a must-have for any Greg Dulli/Afghan Whigs/Twilight Singers
fan and, frankly, I would recommend it to any fan of rock music.
