Twin Shadow played a sold out show at Portland’s Doug Fir Lounge on Tuesday, August 14th in support of their second album Confess. Though they played five songs from the new release, the set was fairly heavy with tracks from their 2010 debut Forget. George Lewis Jr. and his band kicked things off with two from Confess, “Golden Light” and current single “Five Seconds”, and then went into a four-song set of older material. Lewis’ soulful vocals were spot on and “Five Seconds”, which was much more guitar-driven than on record, got the audience cheering straight away. The haunting “Tyrant Destroyed” followed and the sparseness of the arrangement allowed the lyrics to really stand out, especially, “As if it wasn’t enough just to hear you speak / They had to give you lips like that.”
The crowd began clapping in unison on “Patient” and singing along with Lewis, which in turn, made him more animated. “Run My Heart” was a highlight with Lewis’ vocals soaring on, “You want to be the one to believe it,” which he repeated as he ad-libbed the ending. The pacing of the show was a bit interesting, as Twin Shadow transitioned between a fast-paced song to a quieter number. Though the crowd was very engaged, there also was a lot of talking going on which was a bit distracting. “Forget” wrapped up the main set and the band made a cursory exit, then came back and played “When We’re Dancing”. “I Don’t Care” ended the night on a quiet note, but it left great lines hanging in the air like, “Before the night is through I will say three words / I’ll probably mean the first two and regret the third.” With more of the quieter songs on Forget and more upbeat ones on Confess, it made for some ups and downs from a set list standpoint. But from the reaction of the audience, it certainly wasn’t a problem. No one is going to forget about Twin Shadow anytime soon.
Set List
Yellow Balloon
