poppedmusic

Twin Atlantic

The Roundhouse, London, November 3rd

Words: Stuart Evans

One of the the things I love most about watching live music is seeing a band grow up before your very eyes. It’s often the case that you will see a band in a pub and wonder just where they will end up going. Will they forever play the ‘toilet’ circuit and split up because the lead singer has decided to follow his girlfriend to Australia, will they jaunt around the country, release an album, have five minutes of fame and then disappear off the face of the planet, or will they, as in Twin Atlantic’s case, work their arses off, build their raft slowly but precisely and then have a night like this, where the stars were aligned and the band ‘came of age’

Support for the show came from the superb Nothing But Thieves and also the band most likely to ‘do a twin’ The X-certs (their new album is worth getting your ears around) but the night belonged to a four piece Glaswegian band who are clearly having the time of their lives. More power to them.

According to some, Twin’s new album has ‘lost lots of fans’ well those who have been ‘lost’ are missing an absolute trick. I often worry that a London crowd would be static, but Sam Mctrusty and co had them eating out of their hands.

The whole set was a sing-a-long fest, the opening track The Ones That I Love set the tone, the crowd singing along as if their lives depended on it. They threw down Make A Beast Of Myself’ the stand out track from previous album Free early on in the set (this used to be THE big track, now they can throw it in early as if to say, we got more than this) and even the album tracks (they played every track from latest breakthrough record Great Divide) like the vicious Cell Mate were greeted like old friends with a kick in the stomach.

The biggest highlights would have to be when McTrusty got 1,400 people to sit down on the floor and then wait, and wait, and wait until the bridge into the chorus of Time To Stand Up kicked in and everyone lost it (was great to see kids making proper a proper mosh pit, took me back in time!) and Crash Land which sounded like all 1,700 people sang a long too, a certain ‘F’ word being the most profound of the evening.