The Twilight Singers

Greg Dulli has said that he has very little interest in releasing a live album. As far as he's concerned, there's no need to release something he's already lived through into the Twilight Singer's catalogue.

I guess this makes sense if you're Greg Dulli - after all, the man owns roughly 3,000 albums, and there's not one live recording anywhere in his collection. But if you're one of the many poor sods out there who've never seen him in concert (or even one of the lucky punters who has), it makes less sense, primarily because the Twilight Singers kick severe arse in concert, and a live album could tip the balance for any potential converts sitting on the fence:

"You think they sound good on record? Well just listen to this!"

One reason for this is that Dulli has enough stage presence to own the boards of every venue he and his gang slide onto - The Scala being no exception - and another is that the Twilight Singers are a live act first and a studio band second, which - to you in the cheap seats - means they're as tight as hell, with talent to burn.

Even though the band are touring off the back of an album of covers, it's mainly the songs from Dulli's new ouvre that make it into the set. They don't end up sounding wildly different from the way they appear on record, but tonight they've been arranged as more of a cohesive whole where intros act as segues and bridges between the individual numbers. They're also packing enough muscle to blow the venue's roof off. You could almost see holes being burned in the atmosphere by the chorus of 'Decatur Street'; the wall-to-wall sleaze covered groove of 'Teenage Wristband' cocooned the audience; and for the mid-mark 'Twilight Kid', for wall of sound read sonic tidal wave.

Elsewhere in the set, Dulli's cover of the moment - Martina Topley Bird's 'Too Tough To Die' - saunters across the stage all hips and sass, and the chorus of 'All You Need Is Love' gets a bile injection. Some bugs were ironed out too: without Helen Storer and Mark Lannegan riding shotgun on the vocals, Dulli's cover of Bjork's 'Hyperballad' is as close to perfect as a cover can get, with its fragile guitar line contrasting beautifully with his throat-tearing wail.

The show closes with the Afghan Whigs' curtain call, 'Faded'. There were more of them planned, but the Scala curfew is a strict one, and besides, by all accounts, if Dulli's current output continues at this pace, he may be able to say goodbye to the Whigs altogether. He's got enough new songs of his own to keep the Twilight Singers in venues for years to come.

He's also got enough of a way with other people's songs that he could probably tour on nothing but covers, and still have them lining up around the block. Have you ever heard 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' sound sexy and seductive enough to snog to? No?

You should've been there...