{"id":288,"date":"2007-04-22T20:52:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-22T20:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/docwiggly.wordpress.com\/2007\/04\/22\/a-northern-chorus-and-the-twilight-sad-the-casbah-4-17-2007\/"},"modified":"2007-04-22T20:52:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-22T20:52:00","slug":"a-northern-chorus-and-the-twilight-sad-the-casbah-4-17-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2007\/04\/22\/a-northern-chorus-and-the-twilight-sad-the-casbah-4-17-2007\/","title":{"rendered":"A Northern Chorus and The Twilight Sad @ The Casbah, 4-17-2007"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>A Northern Chorus and The Twilight Sad<\/b><i> @ The Casbah, 4-17-2007<br \/>\nshow review and pics by Natalie Kardos<\/i><\/p>\n<p>\tI first heard of the Scottish band The Twilight Sad way back in November, when an EP they had recorded made an impression on the ears of a reviewer with musical tastes similar to mine.  I picked up a copy of their EP and was likewise impressed.  Their debut full-length album, released April 3rd, contains more of the same, great, shoegazey indie rock.  So it was with great anticipation that I headed to the Casbah last Tuesday night to see them open, along with A Northern Chorus, for fellow countrymen Aerogramme.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img213.imageshack.us\/img213\/2020\/rvur35twilightsad2bw0.jpg?w=900\"><\/p>\n<p>\tFirst up was A Northern Chorus.  The songs posted on their myspace page piqued my curiosity enough to get me out of the house in time to catch their set.  And I was very glad that I did.  They play indie pop with a touch of shoegaze and folk thrown in, and accent their songs with both violin and cello.  Vocal duties are traded off between the two male guitarists and the female celloist, which gives each song it\u2019s own personality.  They played an extremely strong set (especially for an opener), and I recommend that you catch them the next time they happen through our little town.<\/p>\n<p>\tThe second band on the bill was The Twilight Sad.  I suppose this isn\u2019t the first time that a band with all the blog-buzz opened for a \u201clesser-known\u201d band (see: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah opening for The National awhile back), but in my mind they were the band to see that night.  They opened their set with the shimmery \u201cAnd She Would Darken the Memory of Youth,\u201d which, without the lyrics, would seem quite at home on an Explosions in the Sky album.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img213.imageshack.us\/img213\/7807\/rvur35twilightsad1ob5.jpg?w=900\"><\/p>\n<p>They followed that up with \u201cWalking For Two Hours\u201d and \u201cLast Year the Rains Didn\u2019t Fall Quite So Hard,\u201d both of which expertly combine a guitar-generated wall of noise with emotional lyrics made even more poignant by the Scottish brogue that blankets them.  As a segue to the next song (\u201cTalking With Fireworks\/Here, It Never Snowed\u201d), guitarist Andy McFarlane played an eerily quiet guitar line, immediately followed by the singer and the drummer smashing the crap out of the drum kit and cymbals.  For the rest of this song, which was the emotional high-point of the evening, the band alternated between quiet, gentle, sweet guitar-lined verses and the dramatic, drum kit-bashing break that served as a chorus.<\/p>\n<p>James Graham\u2019s performance throughout the show was entrancing \u2013 one second he would be getting rather intimate with his old-timey-looking microphone, the next he would be lifting it up or tilting it away from himself as he moved around the small stage.  This was quite in contrast to the rest of the band\u2019s members, who seemed rather stoic during the entirety of the short set.  The last two songs contained the most emotional lyrics out of all six songs in the band\u2019s set.  In \u201cMapped By What Surrounded Them,\u201d the singer reveals \u201cIn my dreams\/I watch Emily dance\u201d while the background vocalist sings, \u201cShe was taken far too young.\u201d  Melancholic, indeed.  Their set closer \u201cThat Summer At Home I Had Become the Invisible Boy,\u201d recounts adolescent drama and alienation in all its desperate glory.  \u201cI\u2019m fourteen\/and you know\/that I\u2019ve learned the easy way\/such stupid decisions\/and with a broken heart\/and they\u2019re sitting around the table\/and they\u2019re talking behind your back.\u201d  Even with \u201ca loving mother\u201d and \u201ca strong father figure,\u201d Graham is yelling, rebelling, crying out against adolescent injustice and his inability to do anything about it.  Quite the emotional set closer, if you ask me.  This band manages to do what all the Dashboard Confessionals in the world could never do \u2013 make adolescent angst sound noble, not whiny.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Northern Chorus and The Twilight Sad @ The Casbah, 4-17-2007 show review and pics by Natalie Kardos I first heard of the Scottish band The Twilight Sad way back in November, when an EP they had recorded made an impression on the ears of a reviewer with musical tastes similar to mine. I picked up a copy of their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-a-northern-chorus-and-the-twilight-sad"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":238,"url":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2007\/02\/11\/battalion-of-saints-casbah-show-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":288,"position":0},"title":"Battalion of Saints, Casbah, show review","author":"admin","date":"February 11, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Battalion of Saints, Casbah, Fri night Feb.9 show review and pic by Brian LaVallie I was looking forward to seeing the Battalion of Saints at the Casbah Friday night. It\u2019s been years since I had seen them at the Adams Avenue Theatre, then produced by Casbah owner Tim Maze. Back\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;archive&quot;","block_context":{"text":"archive","link":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Image hosted at PICTUB.com","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pictub.com\/users\/2006\/03\/26\/reviewer\/albums\/rvur_34\/photos\/2\/battalionofsaints2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":396,"url":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2007\/11\/20\/tim-mays-the-video-interview\/","url_meta":{"origin":288,"position":1},"title":"Tim Mays, the video interview.","author":"admin","date":"November 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Tim Mays from San Diego's Casbah has a new dinner club on India with Steve Poltz (The Rugburns) he's called Starlight Lounge. OK, it's been open for a while now. But don't call it The Starlight. Just \"Starlight.\" He likes not having to book bands at The Casbah all day\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;archive&quot;","block_context":{"text":"archive","link":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12767,"url":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2015\/11\/29\/x-returns-to-the-casbah\/","url_meta":{"origin":288,"position":2},"title":"X returns to The Casbah","author":"Reviewer Rob","date":"November 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The legendary band X returns by Reviewer Rob X opens their show at The Casbah, 11-27-15: this was said to be the first time X had appeared on stage since Billy Zoom had been in chemo treatment. They chose the warm and inviting safety of the naugahyde-padding lined stage of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;archive&quot;","block_context":{"text":"archive","link":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"X opens their Casbah show after Billy Zoom takes the stage to cheers from the crowd.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/x-band-video-11-27-15-600px.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/x-band-video-11-27-15-600px.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/x-band-video-11-27-15-600px.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":120,"url":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2006\/08\/13\/cashd-out-at-the-casbah\/","url_meta":{"origin":288,"position":3},"title":"Cash&#039;d Out at the Casbah","author":"admin","date":"August 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month, on July 5th, The Casbah held the Avalon Tattoo 17th Anniversary Party with Cash'd Out, The Scotch Greens, Bartenders Bible, Sultry Savage Burlesque. Below are photos of Doug Benson's Jahnny Cash tribute band, Cash'd Out, set. All photos by Reviewer Rob, \"America's greatest rock photographer,\" fame@reviewermag.com.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;archive&quot;","block_context":{"text":"archive","link":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Image hosted at PICTUB.com","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pictub.com\/users\/2006\/03\/26\/reviewer\/albums\/rvur_32\/photos\/cash_dout7-06k.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pictub.com\/users\/2006\/03\/26\/reviewer\/albums\/rvur_32\/photos\/cash_dout7-06k.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pictub.com\/users\/2006\/03\/26\/reviewer\/albums\/rvur_32\/photos\/cash_dout7-06k.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11819,"url":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2015\/07\/14\/bob-bennett-in-action\/","url_meta":{"origin":288,"position":4},"title":"Bob Bennett in action","author":"Reviewer Rob","date":"July 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"[Nightlife]Casbah Bob Never Skimped On The Drinks by Reviewer Rob Bob Bennett was one of the original owners and a founder of the Casbah in San Diego. He was originally from Pittsburgh, PA, I believe, and I also think he told me his father was a cop when he was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;archive&quot;","block_context":{"text":"archive","link":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Casbah Bob Bennett, Reviewer TV video frame, 2010 or 2011 (?).","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/bob.bennet.in_.action-reviewertv.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/bob.bennet.in_.action-reviewertv.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/bob.bennet.in_.action-reviewertv.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":129,"url":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2006\/08\/28\/cankles-at-the-casbah\/","url_meta":{"origin":288,"position":5},"title":"Cankles at The Casbah","author":"admin","date":"August 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"LIVE PHOTOGRAPHY! :: The Cankles at the Casbah. 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From The Casbah's website: Sun 27 The Local 94\/9 Presents: A Summer BBQ & Show - The Cankles, Get Back Loretta, CBA, Dynamite Walls, Anna Troy - Craft Fair in the Atari Lounge + live\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;archive&quot;","block_context":{"text":"archive","link":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Image hosted at PICTUB.com","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pictub.com\/users\/2006\/03\/26\/reviewer\/albums\/cankles_casbah_8-28-06\/photos\/web-cankles_jam_2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pictub.com\/users\/2006\/03\/26\/reviewer\/albums\/cankles_casbah_8-28-06\/photos\/web-cankles_jam_2.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pictub.com\/users\/2006\/03\/26\/reviewer\/albums\/cankles_casbah_8-28-06\/photos\/web-cankles_jam_2.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pictub.com\/users\/2006\/03\/26\/reviewer\/albums\/cankles_casbah_8-28-06\/photos\/web-cankles_jam_2.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}