The Twilight Singers, May 25 at the Fonda

Greg Dulli has had a lot of things with music going on the last few years -- with the Gutter Twins and with Mark Lanegan (both of those separately, for some reason) and his own solo stuff -- but it’s all still him, with all of it mixing together with each other, making the boarders of each nearly non-existent.  Though none of those are the Afghan Whigs, there’s still occasionally some of that in there too, at least in spirit.  But the Twilight Singers have been his most consistent project post-Whigs and since it’s really only him, it’s probably what he’ll continue to do, assuming he won’t make some monumental shift in what he produces as an artist.  The original point of the Twilight Singers was that it would be a rotating cast of singers, though after the first album it became Dulli and some co-singers and back-up singers, which is perfectly fine, and he’s made some great records.  The man certainly is comfortable with collaboration, though when you get down to it, he’s strong enough on his own and doesn’t require others, so it’s probably just for the company.  In concert you never know who may show up (though it’s usually Lanegan) but sometimes it’s just a straight-ahead rock show.  Predictably Carla and I got tickets for the show, not minding the overlap of all the stuff he would play that we’ve both heard before at other shows.  This show was about as straight-forward as you could get: no notable special guests and no left-field music selections, and Dulli doesn’t chat as much on stage as he used to (though that might be the sobriety talking).  Just the Twilight Singers (even though it’s only one singer) doing stuff from their newest album Dynamite Steps and some choice cuts from past albums, in particular “Teenage Wristband,” which is on the level of his older stuff.  The music played live doesn't have the production flourishes that Dulli throws down in the studio but it doesn’t need it; they just played a rock show and they didn’t need any extra, fancy stuff.  At this point, Dulli is a self-aware professional musician and he’s been doing this long enough to know where he stands, heading away from a commercial peak but towards a classy elder statesman status, so he puts on a slick show and heads a band that’s just off the middle of the road but he knows how to navigate the detours.  The only surprise was that there were no surprises, just an undiluted rock show.  That was good enough for me, though I have to admit that I was, as always whenever Dulli is playing, no matter what name the show is under, hoping for the surprise of an Afghan Whigs track played live again.  Margot & the Nuclear So & So's opened the show and we saw maybe half of their last song, since we were getting drinks next door at the Blue Palm.  I'm sure they were just lovely.