Last Friday I headed over to the Southgate House to welcome Cincinnati native and former Afghan Whigs frontman, Greg Dulli, back to town with the Twilight Singers. This was a show that I had been looking forward to, my wife had been marking off calendar days for, and a good portion of the metro area had been salivating over for weeks.

The show was sold out, something I hadn’t previously witnessed at the Southgate House, and place was shaking with anticipation. Not only had the prodigal son  returned, but former Screaming Trees frontman, Mark Lanegan was performing with the band, and the Afghan Whigs were reportedly heading back into the studio to record new material for a Rhino Records retrospective entitled, Unbreakable.

Portland trio, Stars of Track and Field opened with a rousing set that sold quite a few records for them at the merch table and had the crowd rocking, waiting for the Twilight Singers to take the stage. After the requisite changing out of equipment, the lights dimmed and then… we waited.

It seemed like nearly 30 minutes passed before Dulli and company arrived and by that time the crowd had grown restless. Plus, something wasn’t right. Dulli appeared bloated and somewhat comfortably numb. For those of you familiar with the Afghan Whigs, seeing Dulli craftily qualified is nothing new. Hell, they were famous for it, but this was like watching someone in slo-mo.

The guy taping the show in front me mentioned that the sound checks had gone in reverse order earlier in the day, and sure enough the sound seemed backwards somehow. Greg Dulli’s vocals have always had a swagger that punched you in the guts as you swallowed the angst of the lyrics, but on this night the swagger became a stagger and the punch was more of a harmless slap.

As the show finally wound down and the band left the stage, the lights remained low as if an encore was imminent. But the equipment was slowly removed from the stage and the crowd grew riotous. It appeared that the band was back in the bus, finishing off the fifth of Old Grandad and whatever else they had left behind.

When only a piano remained on the stage and word had gotten back to the bus that the crowd was about ready to burn Dulli in effigy, the band returned to the stage for an encore that can only be described as an afterthought.

I left Newport that evening feeling that this was, without a doubt, one of the worst shows I had witnessed in recent memory. But apparently the band felt otherwise. In the bands tour journal, posted on their website, bassist Scott Ford described the night this way:

So tonight, the exceptionally vocal and excited crowd suddenly became nonchalant and apathetic during the encore break. Honestly, we were surprised as we waited backstage taking the well-deserved five minute break that we rely upon before coming back out and tearing it up. So, we figured that the crowd was done and nobody (including you dear reader) likes to witness anyone else’s sense of self-entitlement. So we went back to the bus. Show over, done deal.

So apparently the crowd was to blame for the band’s lackluster performance? A performance that apparently was impossible because, again, according to Scott:

all the bullshit rock n’roll clichés don’t apply to us, not because we want to be difficult (although some may argue), but because we are a seasoned rock band of veteran musicians and we don’t feel the need to pander to anyone. That’s the way it is. There’s nothing I hate more than going to see a band I love and watching them go through the motions and that’s something you will never see from us. Trust me, if we ever got to that point we’d pack it in and call it a day.

Well, I know that “calling it a day” hasn’t happened, and apparently I wasn’t alone. Everyone I talked to that was at the show was pissed. Pissed not only because they spent their hard-earned 15 bucks, but because the band they loved just seemed to treat them as an afterthought. This anger quickly spread in emails to the band, and Dulli felt compelled to respond on the front page of the Twilight Singers website:

It seems that audience and band were on two different wavelengths in regards to how this particular show should come to a close… As for the full blown haters, I wish you the best and thank you for the love you once had for me. Based on a couple of you, it’s probably best we end our relationship anyway. That wasn’t a rock and roll concert for you, it was the Holocaust.

Wow.

If you read Dulli’s comment previous to the “haters” remark, he appears gracious and apologetic for the misunderstanding, but to deliver that final Holocaust comment… That just doesn’t seem like something that a “seasoned rock band of veteran musicians” would ever consider. Either you take responsibility or you don’t.

I feel compelled to write that I am far from a hater. I own all of the Afghan Whigs records, all of the Twilight Singers albums, and I have seen both bands perform amazing shows. This, however, was not one of them. Far from it.

In the past my wife has mentioned Greg Dulli as one of the few people that she just might have to reconsider the whole marriage/fidelity thing if the opportunity ever arose. After Friday night, I no longer have to worry.

That is until, the Twilight Singers come to town again and, hopefully, redeem themselves.

If you’d like to listen to the Twilight Singers when they truly tear it up, here are a few tracks from their latest album, Powder Burns, and their newest EP, A Stitch in Time.

• Listen to I’m Ready
• Listen to Candy Cane Crawl
• Listen to Flashback

I would also recommend you checking out Stars of Track and Field when you get a chance. Their newest, Centuries Before Love and War, is real nice.

• Listen to Movies of Antarctica
• Listen to Fantastic

Buy some Twilight Singers from insound.
Buy Stars of Track and Field from iTunes.