THE TWANG at O2 Academy Newcastle - 20th February 2014

I often hear music fans utter the phrase: “Are those guys even around anymore?” It’s mostly in relation to some awful fad, a passing whim that took hold of our imaginations and then lost them just as quickly or a one hit wonder that really made no impact musically-think Peter Andre mysterious girl. But every so often I hear this muttering in relation to a band that was special, that created anthems of a generation and had tons of devoted fans who new every word to every song. Bands that didn’t break up or sell out, that just quietly kept at it in the background and fell off all of our radars, as more current music came along.  But they didn’t stop making music, we just stopped paying attention. 

Well at least, that’s how I feel about the indie rock returners The Twang, who rolled into Newcastle’s Academy 2 on the 20^th of February.

Despite rumours of the boys being past it, irrelevant and somewhat unwanted they delivered a superb performance.  Kicking off the evening was a duo of supports which included indie rock locals Emergency Door Release and the ever so slightly over – exuberant Bristol based Towns; whose limp limbed frontman flayed around the stage in a less rock and roll, more 18 year old who has had a few cans too many way. However, both supports delivered solid performances and warmed up the crowd nicely for the arrival of The Twang. 

At this point we saw this band prove those initial mutters of disbelieve that they were entirely wrong. Arriving on stage greeted by quite an impressive turn out, The Twang boys looking slightly more jaded than when they were the cheeky chappies that released Wide Awake in 2006, but they were still raring to go. As they launched into their back catalogue, it was easy to see that, to the people in this room at least, The Twang had never gone.

It’s rare nowadays to witness an adventurous audience; often at these smaller gigs a band has to persuade a tentative audience to crawl toward the front of the stage. Not at the Twang; the joy and enthusiasm that oozed of this bouncing crowd was thrilling to watch; each member jumping in unison with the next, or clambering over another to get to the top of the pile to have his voice heard loudest in the choir of Twang fans that repeated every word that Phil Etheridge’s gruffly sweet voice sung out.

As with most returning bands on tour, The Twang was on a mission to play some new material. The boys had announced on January 14^th that their new album NEONTWANG will be released on 10th March 2014. Now, this portion of a gig is usually where we find most fans go to the bar, they can’t sing along, they become more reluctant to dance; but no. As with the style of this night, The Twang fans once again became the exception to the gig goers rule. Listening attentively, dancing along enthusiastically; strangely anyone would have thought they’d heard it all before, which is perhaps a reflection on the Twang's new material playing it rather close and safe. But either way the crowd loved it. 

This night was unexpected for many reasons, but I mostly feel that a lack of hype around this band left them free to truly embrace their performance, their fans reaction and their chance to be back on stage again. They truly looked at home, bouncing off each other’s energy with a relaxed enthusiasm.  The Twang appears happy to be back, and the crowd are surely happy to have them. 

Words: Dominique Daly 
Photo: Jill O'Donnell