In the last 12 months Scottish alt-rockers Twin Atlantic have been on stadium stages with Muse, at Wembley Arena with Fightstar and last night they rocked Aberdeen’s historic Beach Ballroom with a headline show.
The band are on the road ahead of the release of their new album Meltdown, which hits the record store racks in August.
It’s 15 years since Twin Atlantic emerged in Glasgow and found mainstream success with their second album, Free. With their live pedigree it was no surprise that the band came over last night as true headliners.
If you took a musical saucepan and mixed some Nirvana with a dollop of Springsteen and seasoned it with a sprinkle of Depeche Mode, you wouldn’t be far from the wall of sound that Twin Atlantic create.
Core members, vocalist Sam McTrusty and bass player Ross McNae are bolstered live brilliantly by Barry McKenna on guitar and the excellent Joe Lazarus (Biffy, GUN,) on drums. McTrusty recently said “The time felt right to dive back into the big choruses and massive guitars” and the band has certainly evolved from their early indie sound to a fuller stadium rock roar.
A slightly late start but well worth the wait
The band were half an hour late coming on, but the audience didn’t give a hoot as the band opened a classy 90 min set with Get Out, and Asleep. Whilst the new less familiar material went over well, it was early fan favourites Make A Beast Of Myself and the epic No Sleep that got the Ballroom’s wooden sprung floor bouncing. And boy were they loud.
But it wasn’t all full-on rock and roll. The pace was slowed as McTrusty sang Oceans solo with his acoustic, before the band rejoined him onstage for Crash Land, with Barry McKenna adding nice texture on electric cello.
Twin Atlantic’s support
The evening started well too as Scottish duo Saint Phnx (pronounced ‘Phoenix’) delivered a short set that was high on energy and power. Brothers Stevie and Alan Juke made a big noise, swapped instruments and even managed to squeeze a crowd singing competition into their 30 minute slot. The poignant Happy Place and the Shinedown-tinged Death of Me were highlights.
Twin Atlantic hit the home straight with their biggest hit Heart And Soul. At 26 million Spotify streams and counting it was unsurprisingly the epic closer and had the whole venue bellowing its power-pop chorus.
Scotland has some tremendous rock bands, and Twin Atlantic are right up there with the best. They return for more shows at the end of the year. Don’t miss them.
The full set list:
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