Live, Through This: We Were Promised Jetpacks, In Flames, The Twilight Sad

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IN THE AGE of Twitter and DVRs, short attention spans aren't just the norm, they're necessary. How else to even feign keeping up with all the interesting things happening in the world — from entertainment and politics to science and sports — unless they come in edited bursts that cut the fat and compress time?

On Monday night I had the equivalent of a DVR-aided concert-going experience, and I wish I could bottle the efficiency in which I rocked.

Black Cat was hosting the U.K. indie-rock triumvirate We Were Promised Jetpacks, BrakesBrakesBrakes and The Twilight Sad, and 9:30 Club had a night of international headbanging with The Faceless, 3 Inches of Blood, Between the Buried and Me and In Flames.

The goal was to see Jetpacks, then shoot over to 9:30 for In Flames, and then back in Black Cat in time for The Twilight Sad — and the schedule-makers agreed with my plan. The posted schedules had Jetpacks at 9 p.m., In Flames at 10:10 p.m. and The Twilight Sad at 11 p.m., and thanks to the efficiency of the clubs, things ran just 10 minutes behind for both venues, allowing me to indulge in my twin passions — and I'm sure they're yours, too — for Scottish indie-emo and melodic Swedish death metal.

While the Black Cat wasn't packed, the quarter-full main-stage room was still an impressive sight because none of the bands are big names, plus Monday night concerts can be the kiss of death. The crowd was also well enthused for WWPJ, which is on its first tour of America, and the 22-year-olds from Edinburgh beamed with appreciation. After the loud sing-alongs and wild applause following the band's first two songs, "It's Thunder and It's Lightning" and "Roll Up Your Sleeves," cherub-faced singer-guitarist Adam Thompson said, "You do know we're not The Twilight Sad? ... This is really unexpected for us; thanks for coming out early."

The performer-audience interaction continued throughout the band's eight-song set, with the funniest bit being when Thompson announced that the tour bus they're sharing with BrakesBrakesBrakes and The Twilight Sad had an electrical malfunction. For several days, he said, they've had no water, lights or air conditioning and "it smells" — which was quickly followed by a woman in the crowd shouting, "Just like Scotland!" That might read as rude, but the band laughed and then went on a riff about Scotland (kilts, etc.).

After the sixth song, "Moving Clocks Run Slow," Thompson was ready to pronounce the gig as one of the band's most uplifting. He checked with his fellow musicians to see if they agreed, then proclaimed, "This has been one of our favorites, so thanks very much."

WWPJ's music is mostly built on twangy tension and frequently is molded around Thompson's plucking between two notes as bassist Sean Smith plays stiff, almost music-box-like counterpoint as drummer Darren Lackie sizzles his cymbals and snaps his snare while guitarist Michael Palmer adds the subtle filigree. The combination is captured wonderfully on the band's debut, "These Four Walls," and perhaps most clearly on the single "Quiet Little Voices," but live you can also see the discipline in WWPJ's playing style.

Discipline also describes In Flames, which has been a band almost as long as We Were Promised Jetpacks' members have been alive. The group has been touring its 2008 album, "A Sense of Purpose," for more than a year, and the band has its live performances on lock. In Flames cruises through its intricate, catchy, pulverizing, anthemic metal songs with professional passion — and that's not a slam, either. The musicians know that this is their job — not their first tour of the U.S. — and they perform with joy and energy. But In Flames also delivers its shows with the focus of a group that's done this many, many times before.

The packed show was thick with testosterone, and a giant circle pit kept erupting in the middle of 9:30. But plenty of women were also seen in the crowd, with many screaming along to every word with vocalist Anders Friden, who looks like a crustier, more wiry version of Counting Crows' Adam Duritz. It was a dude, however, who was handed the microphone during the song "Square Nothing." A long-haired fella in an In Flames T-shirt was helped on stage to bellow the words as Friden took a break, and while his mic control was less than ideal, the verve with which he delivered the tune earned him appreciative metal horns from the audience.

I stayed for nine songs, including "The Quiet Place," "The Hive," "Take This Life," "Pinball Map," "Disconnected," "Delight and Angers" and "Clayman," before leaving the moshers to their chest-beating dances and to return to what ended up being the Land of Statues. That's not to say the Black Cat crowd didn't love The Twilight Sad; it's just that the band's music is a slow-moving glacier of extreme guitar sonics, thudding drums and rumbling bass lines. It's not moshable, or even danceable; all you can do is stand there and let the tidal wave of sound wash over you.

On record, The Twilight Sad comes across like a moody rock band who could strip down and play acoustically. Their songs are thick with ambiance, but there's always an earthiness at the cores of the tunes. But in concert, The Twilight Sad sound like a mixture of Kitchens of Distinction (shoegaze) and Bauhaus (goth).

Andy MacFarlane's guitar screamed like My Bloody Valentine's, drummer Mark Devine and bassist Craig Orzel's rhythms rumbled like a tribal beatdown as vocalist James Graham emoted like a man who lost his puppy. On recordings, Graham's voice is deep and particular; when fighting the instruments in concert, he becomes a bit more shouty and less nuanced.

The Twilight Sad's 10 tunes bled together in a muddy bliss of sound, and while the substance of the songs wasn't as well served as it is on the new CD, "Forget the Night Ahead," The Twilight Sad's sonic assault was pure heat in its furnace-blast intensity. Earplugs plunged deep into my skull cut out the high end, but I could still feel the pain from the bass frequencies.

The audience loved the pain, too, and cheered wildly after each tune. Like his pals in WWPJ, Graham was equally happy with the crowd's response. Before breaking into the set's third song and the new album's first single, "I Became a Prostitute," Graham surveyed the scene and said, "You guys are here — that's crazy. Thank you very much." Toward the end of the night he reiterated his appreciation, too: "We've had a couple of rough days, and a show like this makes it all worth it."

For me, two well-executed shows in one night made it all worth it, even if I'm a zombie with hearing loss today. And to paraphrase Graham, "I'm not just saying that to suck up to your ass too much."

» RELATED: "Hail, Tartancore! The Twilight Sad & We Were Promised Jetpacks" [Express, Sept. 2009]

» RELATED: "Dark Lights: In Flames" [Express, Dec. 2008]

Photos courtesy the bands