One Touch Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 22 March 2011

TWILIGHT Hotel’s recent offering, ‘When The Wolves Go Blind’, dropped earlier this year to an impressive response and found the Winnipeg duo consolidating their blend of moody country reveries, dark visceral blues, bold storytelling and fondness for all things vintage into a coherent artistic statement.

Already fairly well established in their native Canada, having been nominated for both a Juno and a Canadian Music Award, Dave Quanbury and Brandy Zdan, now based in Austin, recently embarked upon their first full UK tour in support of their third album as Twilight Hotel.

Twilight Hotel

Unfortunately, word didn’t appear to have got out as the duo emerged for their maiden Scottish date to an audience of no more than twenty five at Eden Court’s One Touch Theatre. Even considering their profile in the UK, the poor turnout was a little disheartening given the recent success of similar acts proving a significant draw in the city, perhaps most notably a slammed Bogbain Farm for The Low Anthem last year. Thankfully however, the band appeared unaffected for what transpired to be a fantastic show delivered across two sets.

Early highlights included the beautiful sparse fragility of Mahogany Veneer, the languid lap steel driven brittleness of Frozen Town, and the brilliantly quirky folk cabaret of What Do I Know About Love.

During their second set, the moody blues bluster of Iowalta Morningside was great, with Quanbury’s fizzing tremolo lines and Zdan’s hip breathy vocals proving a thoroughly seductive combination; the stomping Ham Radio Blues and The Critic were also excellent, but perhaps the pick of the performance was Zdan’s gorgeous Shortness Of Breath from her 2007 solo offering, Your Words & The Weather, which was simply exquisite and really allowed her rich vocal tones to penetrate and sparkle.

Twilight Hotel

There was a quick introduction to their vintage equipment, including two 62 Harmony Rocket guitars and an old Honer accordion before they fittingly launched into their thumping closing homage to their preferred method of consuming music, Viva La Vinyl.

They did wander into some feral arrhythmic moments which hit and missed in equal measures, and a couple of tracks rambled into decidedly circular territory; that aside however, they really connected with the small crowd for what proved to be a thoroughly triumphant Scottish debut.

© Alexander Smith, 2011

Links

• Twilight Hotel
• Eden Court Theatre