21 February 2008 (gig)
22 February 2008
The Gutter Twins, the long awaited collaboration between two of alt-rock’s best front men has finally hit the road. Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees) and Greg Dulli (Afgan Whigs/Twillight Singers) perform dark, intense gothic blues to jaw dropping affect. This alliance could not be a finer one.
Lanegan’s face appears as if it’s been chiselled out of stone; such is his hypnotic presence on stage. Both he and Dulli have deep guttural voices you know they picked up when they sold their souls to the devil. Dulli, in particular, has never sounded better.
They open their phenomenal 20-song set with 'The Stations' then 'God’s Children' from their new album Saturnalia. The visceral, brooding performance has electro moments on 'Each To Each' to piano ballad moments on 'I Was In Love With You'. The sound is somewhere between Skinny Puppy, Nine Inch Nails and Tom Waits. It does feel wrong, however, to compare The Gutter Twins to anyone else as they are truly in a league of their own.
Finishing their 13-song main set, Dulli says, 'This is only our third live show together.' With all the other projects Lanegan and Dulli have on the go, the comment makes this show feel quite exclusive. During the seven-song encore they’re joined on stage by Martina Topley-Bird singing backing vocals on 'The Body.' Other than Topley-Bird singing slightly out of key, this 90-minute set is completely flawless.
As Oscar Wilde said, "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars," these unlikely heroes of alt-rock are well out of the gutter and firmly among the stars.
The Gutter Twins album Saturnalia is released on Sub Pop on 3rd March.
