T on the Fringe: The Twilight Singers feat. Mark Lanegan @ Cabaret Voltaire, 27 Aug

With his protege Jeff Klein and old friend Mark Lanegan by his side, Greg Dulli and his Twilight Singers are invincible tonight. Though, as they pull the mask away from vice and addiction, their dark introspection leaves an element of confessional purgery in the air at times. Lanegan cuts an intense figure, appearing and disappearing from the stage with a ninja-like stealth, his vocals somehow ten shades deeper than they were as many years ago on Screaming Trees' Dust.

Not averse to a good medley, a few verses of Omerta and Springsteen's I'm on Fire are tossed in for measure to accompany Klein and later Dulli's sparse piano meanderings. The sound is at its thickest when Bobby Macintyre drops his erratic blend of percussion and the bombastic soul duets of Lanegan and Dulli weaken the walls of Cab Vol. Too tough to die, too strange to change, therein lies the secret of their conviction. [Dave Kerr]