The Twilight Sad w/ Unwed Sailor
Memorial Union Terrace (Madison, WI)
07.13.07

The Memorial Union Terrace (or just "The Terrace") overlooks Lake Mendota in Madison, and as I thread my way through tables and chairs and frat boys and townies and beers to find a spot on a short wall perched atop a grassy knoll, it seems a fitting setting for the opening band. They've just gotten rolling, trails of intricate guitar blending with insistent and intermittently fuzzy bass that rolls out over the black surface of the lake behind them. Swarms of bugs are circling about the drummer, and the keyboardist's hair hangs down over his face as he builds layers of texture into the songs. There's no vocalist and the melodies never sit in the center of the songs, instead flitting around from instrument to instrument, more like commentary than plot. And so the songs are always teetering on the edge of coming in, leading to some low level grumbling from the gentlemen behind me, who are clearly interested in hearing some vocals. "Sing something!" they shout between songs, but they never do. It's all instrumental and I jot down in my notes, "Opener sounds like Tarentel. Also very much like Directions in Music, or maybe Unwed Sailor."

Turns out it is Unwed Sailor. They have a clutch of releases, but the two I'm most familiar with are The Faithful Anchor and The Marionette and the Music Box, which show two very different sides of the band. The former is much like the set they play tonight—mostly instrumental four-piece rock that's heavy on mood and beauty. The latter is far more delicate and largely acoustic, intended as the soundtrack to a children's book. It's a testament to their flexibility and range that they can adapt to varied settings and circumstances and create compelling music for each. I happen to enjoy the band's ability to float in a state of almost-becoming, which they maintain throughout the set until they finally crack into some seriously heavy sounding stuff on their last tune.

I wish I could say that The Twilight Sad were as labile. The Scottish four-piece has been garnering some attention recently in the wake of rave reviews by the likes of Pitchfork and The Onion, and their debut album, Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters, is a compelling blend of the heart-on-sleeve earnestness of their Irish next door neighbors, The Frames, and the wall of sound guitar work of their countrymen, Mogwai. Personally, I haven't found it quite as successful as some other reviewers, but I nevertheless had high hopes for their performance.

Chalk it up to jet lag (this is the first date of their U.S. tour) but I can't remember the last time I've seen a band be this listless and flat while still being incredibly loud. Right from the first song, the singer is pointed directly at the guitarist, although over the course of the next few tunes, he changes position: to face the drummer, and then the bassist, but never the crowd. The guitarist and bassist, if not for the instruments in their hands, could just as well be a couple of guys standing in the audience looking skeptically at the performance. The body language of the band—save for the drummer, who seems to be relatively into it—is just all wrong. The songs, while decent enough renditions of the work on the album, don't rise to the occasion, and the vocal leaps from hushed and gentle melodies up into throat-rending, screaming catharsis fail to generate any kind of excitement.

Sure, the crowd here is not exactly there for the music: people are sitting around tables, crushing brews, and just enjoying the cool night air. But The Twilight Sad didn't even try to get their attention, and it's only when someone from the crowd pipes up before their final song that the singer cracks a smile, proclaiming the last song to be "for that guy." They perk up a bit for that one, but then they're gone, having performed only six or seven tunes in total. I'd really like to give them the benefit of the doubt, and rumor has it they'll be opening for The National when they return to the Twin Cities in the fall, so hopefully by then they'll be ready to deliver their anthems with a bit of charm, and not just a whole lot of noise and fury, signifying nothing.

myspace.com/unwedsailor
myspace.com/thetwilightsad