Pop Montreal review: Twin Shadow at Le Late Night Little Burgundy

Twin Shadow (Photo courtesy of Pop Montreal).

Twin Shadow
Le Late Night Little Burgundy 
Friday, September 19th

Revisiting the dank basement venue that saw Mozart’s Sister and TR/ST the previous night. Suited for a moody sort of sound, it was a far-from-ideal space for indie rockers Twin Shadow. Humidity hung heavy in the air as people filled the church’s underbelly to its brim: the floors twice as sticky, the security twice as tight, and the crowd twice as rowdy.

Twin Shadow consisted of front man George Lewis Jr. and three backing musicians that acted as mere props to the spectacle that is Lewis. He sauntered onstage with a guitar that seemed to have been flung around his neck, outfitted in a leather jacket and matching sly smirk. Lewis postures a bad-boy attitude that does not shine through in his melodramatic, syrupy songs.  Channeling Bon Jovi, Lewis belted his ballads out, loud and proud, the lights that flickered behind him blinding the audience.  Although he seemed to bare his heart and soul during the live performance, there was something slightly calculated about it. It might have been that the smothering sound quality that only a basement allows could have committed injustice unto Twin Shadow. Despite whatever technical limitation Lewis and his band may have faced, it nonetheless fell short. The performance felt like a product, meticulously crafted to create an image that wound up feeling mostly surface.