Twin Sister, By Kenny McMurtrie
By Kenny McMurtrie
Keen as mustard to be on stage for the capacity crowd here tonight Twin Sister delivered note perfect renderings of such numbers as ‘Champy’ and set closer ‘All Around And Away We Go’, along with a couple (including the encore) of duets between just Andrea (looking a tad over-dressed for the event) and Eric. Undoubtedly a nice bunch, their music comes across well in a live setting but one couldn’t help but feel that it would be even better appreciated without having the band actually visible as a point of reference.
Uber-chillout as the music is the act of standing and facing the quintet felt at times anathema to the sounds being produced although you could I suppose go and groove away in a corner to yourself if so minded. Either way, this was a solid and relaxed show from a young band with much more to offer who’re revelling in the moment and who fully deserve their bite at the cherry. Top marks too for returning my own level of enjoyment to the heights it had dropped from during the middle part of the night.
At the start of the night it looked like we were on for an enjoyable time all the way through when first support act The Machine Room took to the stage. Their singer was apparently ripe for a cuddle in the words of one audience member whilst their blend of White Lies, New Order and shoegaze alone was enough to warm up the rest of us lucky enough to make it along for the start. Songs such as ‘Your Head On The Floor Next Door’, ‘Camino De Soda’ and the particularly robust ‘Picking Holes’ showcased a talented bunch of relative newcomers spawned from the fertile ground of Edinburgh College of Art.
The night’s early promise was unfortunately dealt a hefty blow though by touring support Holiday Shores. After a rather pastoral beginning reminiscent of Kings Of Convenience the quartet managed to combine the bad bits from a number of musical styles into blocks of time that could only loosely be described as songs. For the most part they brought to mind Truman’s Water – a band concept that fairs better on paper than in actuality. Like an Eighties band dropped into the 21st century and trying desperately to assimilate the musical advances of the intervening years, not even their guitarist’s interestingly hideous jumper was enough to soften my heart (and how often in Florida do you need to wear a Barbour?). It has to be pointed out in the interest of fairness that that they did garner a decent amount of applause along the way but for my money they try too hard and more often than not fail to gel. A college band who won’t be around post-graduation, albeit three quarters of them could probably go on and do better.
