Twin Tribes @ Metro Music Hall 06.10.25

Joel Niño, Jr., bass player for Twin Tribes, shouts at the crowd at the Metro Music Hall in Salt Lake City, while Luis Navarro plays guitar in the background.

Despite some issues with sound during the darkwave band Twin Tribes' set on June 9 at Metro Music Hall, they remain a "formidable band," says SLUG Senior Staff Writer Ryan Michael Painter. Photo: Diego Andino.

Image: Diego Andino

Concert

In the mid-1990s on through to the early 2000s, I spent as much time living in London as my credit card limits would let me. One of my first stops was always the Kensington Market, a multistory indoor market that housed a wonderful collection of counterculture booths selling clothing, jewelry and music. This, along with Resurrection Records on Camden High Street, was the best place to find flyers for smaller gigs and club nights that didn’t make the major publications like Time Out, NME or Melody Maker.

I didn’t want the tourist experience. I was looking for something more authentic. This mindset sent me into tiny bar basements and back rooms where I saw bands that seemingly existed only for a moment before evaporating away.

Walking into Metro Music Hall on Tuesday brought back a sense of that nostalgia. I had seen Twin Tribes and TRAITRS, but Forever Grey and SOFT VEIN were entirely unknown to me.

I arrive just before doors opened. There is already a decent line of punters waiting to gain entry. Once inside, I make my way to the front of the stage while my girlfriend flutters like a butterfly around the venue socializing. She returns periodically to check on my wellbeing before bouncing away again.

SOFT VEIN, a solo project from Justin Chamberlain that has spent a better part of the year touring with Artoffact Records labelmates ACTORS, is the first to take the stage. Chamberlain, flanked by a keyboardist, slings a guitar over his shoulder and plucks his way through the set. Occasionally he swaps his guitar for a keyboard. Often, he abandons both to just sing. The emphasis is on the electronic beats. For a moment it sounds like he’s channeling Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s “Relax.” There’s no Holly Johnson here. Then there is a rhythm that reminds me of early Skinny Puppy without the shimmering cEvin Key layers. He leans against the microphone, almost motionless and backlit like Jim Reid from The Jesus and Mary Chain. There’s a sense of melancholy in his vocals, an evocative longing. SOFT VEIN is a solid opening act and with time I suspect they could be more.

Next up is the Los Angeles duo Forever Grey featuring Kevin Czarnik on guitar and vocals and Sam Kubiak on keyboards and vocals. Having been somewhat disconnected from the darkwave scene for the past decade, this is the first time I’ve heard Forever Grey. Before entering the venue, I played a few snippets of songs. With haunted female vocals swirling around a grounded, deep male voice with electronic atmospheres, I wasn’t put off. I wasn’t convinced either.

Live, the bass in the backing track sounds fantastic. I wish it was played live, but it sounds infinitely better than the lifeless bass tones that The Sisters of Mercy have insisted on using for the past 20 years. They are completely backlit, drowning in smoke. Nevertheless, Czarnik steps out of the fog to engage with the audience. I’m surprised more darkwave acts haven’t used the duet approach of Forever Grey. It works incredibly well.

For TRAITRS, my girlfriend returns and dances throughout their set. We saw them last year when they played Quarters Arcade Bar. They are, unofficially, our band. Longtime friends Sean-Patrick Nolan and Shawn Tucker hail from Toronto, Canada. Nolan bounces behind the keyboards while Tucker roams the stage hammering away at his guitar. He pauses only long enough to deliver vocals before throwing himself in another direction. Tucker reminds me of Brett Anderson of Suede.

For the first time tonight, the guitars come to the forefront. If I were to compare the sounds of the evening thus far to The Cure, SOFT VEIN and Forever Grey are mostly operating in the Seventeen Seconds and Faith era. With TRAITRS, we’ve reached Pornography. The duo has mid-tempo tracks in their catalog. Tonight, they push for speed. Frenetic and unrelenting, TRAITRS rip through their set. The only pause comes when Tucker breaks his guitar, forcing Nolan to improvise a moody interlude.

The atmosphere moves from the stage into the crowd as the audience forgets the rising heat and throws themselves into dancing and singing along. This is what it feels like to be alive. This is why I still attend concerts.

By the time Twin Tribes take the stage, we’re universally exhausted. Fortunately, music is invigorating. As Luis Navarro and Joel Niño Jr. take the stage to the sounds of “The Path To Antares,” the crowd, tired and sweaty, rises to match the band’s energy.

Unfortunately, with “Shadows,” things take a turn for the worse. The backing tracks, bass and keyboards levels are pushed too high in the mix. Each thump of the electronic drums and the drone of the bass notes reverberates in our chests. We’re literally rattled with each beat. The lead vocal is smothered; guitar and backing vocals almost disappear entirely. My girlfriend, who loves Twin Tribes, says she must move away from the stage. “It felt like I was having a panic attack,” she’d later tell me.

She’s not alone. A dozen or so fans, many of whom had waited at or near the barrier all night, are forced to move back.

I’m stubborn. I wasn’t going to move. Surely, they’d sort out the mix and those who left would regret giving up their spots. There were moments that sounded better than others, but generally the mix never improved. It wasn’t entirely a volume issue. I could hear the people next to me singing along. I worked for a band who never met a sound restriction they wouldn’t break. They weren’t sacrificing fidelity. The levels were almost always balanced.

It’s no secret that being at the front of the stage is not the best location for sound. You’ll usually lose a bit of the vocal, and the other dynamics are a little messy. This went far beyond that.

After a dozen or so songs, I finally gave up and decided to go stand by the soundboard to see what the mix sounded like for the person who was responsible for the mix. It was dramatically better, but the bass and backing tracks were still too high.

I should point out that I was an outlier. Most of those who remained up front seemed unbothered by the sound issues. They sang along at full volume, danced in the freed-up space around them and clapped feverishly at the end of every song.

At the back of the room, I was able to enjoy the final section of the concert that included “Fatasmas,” “Heart & Feather,” and “Monolith.” Had I moved back with my girlfriend, I would have likely enjoyed the show. Instead, I stewed over the sound issues.

Twin Tribes are a formidable band. They have the charisma, the talent, the songs and the drive to be something special. Their crossover appeal is evident. When I think of them, I’ll choose to remember how much I enjoyed them at Cruel World Festival a few years ago, rather than the frustration I felt at this performance.

<a href="https://twintribes.bandcamp.com/album/pendulum">Pendulum by Twin Tribes</a>