The Gutter Twins (Posted Date: 22 Jul 2009, 03:29)

The Gutter Twins / Jimmy Gnecco / Duke Garwood

15.07.09 Savoy Theater, Düsseldorf

Six months after the brilliant Berlin show The Gutter Twins returned to Germany for another evening with Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan.
First of all, the Savoy Theater is a run-down theatre partly used as a cinema and though it is smaller than the Babylon cinema in Berlin it was far from being sold out which surprised me.
Again Duke Garwood opened the evening and I must admit I still don't like his music. But fortunately his set was shorter than in berlin as there was a second support act named Jimmy Gnecco. I hadn't heard of him before but he's collaborated with Queen's Brian May for a song of the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack. Gnecco has a tremendous voice though reminding me too much of Thom Yorke's but his short set was ok.
Finally The Gutter Twins entered the stage consisting of Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan together with Dave Roesser on guitar. They played a similar set to the Berlin show but it wasn't the same magic as back then in January. The audience seemed somehow subdued and the musicians seemed to be reluctant even bored, too. The music was still beautiful, especially Summer's Kiss and One Hundred Days, but you could sense that they didn't really enjoy the show.
Maybe that's why the cut the set shorter compared to other concerts on that tour and left the stage after only 50 minutes though they did return for an encore. But they didn't play highlights like What Jail Is Like or Dollar Bill which which were included in other sets like the Amsterdam gig three days before.
So it was a disappointing evening but maybe after such outstanding shows by the New Bomb Turks, The Gories and Oblivians some days before my expectations were just too big.

The Gutter Twins (Posted Date: 25 Jan 2009, 11:35)

The Gutter Twins / Doug Garwood

24.01.09 Babylon, Berlin

After extensive touring with a full line-up throughout 2008 The Gutter Twins returned to Europe for some special evenings announced as "An evening with Greg Dulli & Mark Lanegan":
"Sub Pop veterans Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan will return to Europe beginning January 15th 2009 for sixteen special intimate performances. Dulli and Lanegan along with guitarist Dave Rosser will perform a 'Stripped Down In The Gutter' set. By sheer virtue of the intimacy of the show, it will be unique, as neither Dulli nor Lanegan have toured in this capacity before.
"Since our instrumentation for this tour is going to be radically different, the shows will include many songs neither of us have performed in quite sometime or ever," Dulli commented."
They chose the old Babylon cinema in Berlin as the only German stop on this tour. Signs at the entrance said that the band wished no photos to be taken and the staff reminded everyone going in to stick to that rule. We got seats in the 8th row and when Duke Garwood opened the evening with his depressive swamp blues you could already notice the tremendous sound of the venue.
As predicted The Gutter Twins played a completely different set compared to last year's shows. After starting with four songs from Saturnalia and Adorata they left their own material aside and went on with tracks from The Twilight Singers, Afghan Whigs and also Mark's solo stuff. The three guys were seated on stage throughout the set with only Greg sometimes changing from guitar to piano. They were in excellent mood, especially Greg was quite talkative.
They returned for an encore closing the set with a bunch of unusual cover versions including Tennessee Waltz which featured guitarist Dace Rosser on vocals. Dulli has described The Gutter Twins as "the satanic Everly Brothers" and tonight proved his statement as they played All I Have To Do Is Dream.
After 90 minutes the show was over and I'm pretty sure that my first concert of 2009 will end up in this year's top ten list.

Setlist:
01 The Body (The Gutter Twins – Saturnalia)
02 God’s Children (The Gutter Twins – Saturnalia)
03 The Stations (The Gutter Twins – Saturnalia)
04 We Have Met Before (The Gutter Twins – Adorata)
05 Creeping Coastline of Lights (Mark Lanegan – I’ll Take Care Of You)
06 Resurrection Song (Mark Lanegan – Field Songs)
07 The Twilite Kid (The Twilight Singers – Twilight As Played By…)
08 The Lure Would Prove Too Much (The Twilight Singers – A Stitch In Time)
09 Kimiko’s Dream House (Mark Lanegan – Field Songs)
10 Summer’s Kiss  (The Afghan Whigs – Black Love)
11 King Only (The Twilight Singers – Twilight As Played By…)
12 Sunrise (Mark Lanegan – Whiskey For The Holy Ghost)
13 The River Rise (Mark Lanegan – Whiskey For The Holy Ghost)
14 Sunset Machine (unreleased track)
15 I Am In The Heavenly Way (Bukka White)
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16 Candy Cane Crawl (The Twilight Singers – Powder Burns)
17 One Hundred Days (Mark Lanegan – Bubblegum)
18 Tennessee Waltz (Redd Stewart/Pee Wee King)
19 All I Have To Do Is Dream (Everly Brothers)
20 I Get A Kick Out Of You (Cole Porter)

The Gutter Twins (Posted Date: 12 Apr 2008, 07:01)

The Gutter Twins / Creature With The Atom Brain

11.04.08 AB, Brussels

The Gutter Twins are Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan, both heroes from the good old grunge days where they were in The Afghan Whigs and Screaming Trees respectively. Mark Lanegan has been contributing to and touring with Greg's other band, The Twilight Singers, two years ago and now they finally made their long awaited album Saturnalia under the name of The Gutter Twins whose history goes back as far as 2005.
As their only German gigs will be in Hamburg and Berlin I thought Brussels might be a nice place to see them live. The AB, a 2000 capacity club in the heart of the city, was sold out. Support came from Antwerp's Creature With The Atom Brain with members from Millionaire who had a guest appearance by Mark Lanegan on their debut album I Am The Golden Gate Bridge (that man seems to be a workaholic).
At 9pm The Gutter Twins entered the stage and opened their set with The Stations. But after only 45 minutes and a breathtaking duet by Greg and mark (St. James Infirmary from the Ramblin' Man EP by Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan) they surprisingly said goodbye.
after a few minutes they returned, but without Mr. Dulli and Mark explained that he wasn't feeling well and they'd finish the show without him. They played three more songs including Hit The City and Methamphetamine Blues from Lanegan's Bubblegum album and that was it.
At least thus I was able to catch an earlier train home. By the way, Brussels seems to be the only place where they're selling beer from the vending machine at the Midi station.