Soulsavers feat. Mark Lanegan

Look at this picture. THAT is how dark it was at this show. Which, in turn, gives you some idea of how the music was. Think 'Nick Cave on Mogadon' and you've got a fair idea - dark, gloomy, slow paced; melodic, yes, but with Lanegan's mournful drone lying over the top of it.

Really, it shouldn't be too hard to predict how an act like this will sound. Soulsavers have been peddling their gloomy tunes for almost a decade now; Lanegan has been around even longer, first as the doom-laden voice of Screaming Trees, later as one of Queens of the Stone Age's many collaborators (he wrote and performed one of their greatest songs 'The Hanging Tree'). The problem is that, however good the songs are, after 20 minutes or so standing about listening to a very tall man dressed all in black stand stock still and sing along to some other people also dressed in black on a darkened stage becomes a little, well, dull. On record, this is a brilliant collaboration. Live, it just doesn't quite work.