Twisted Illusion – I Have Music, I Have Life! (live)

On December 21st Twisted Illusion will self release their first live album I Have Music, I Have Life!. Recorded on their debut headlining tour on February 2nd 2018 at the B2 in Norwich, its sound quality took me back to my tape trading days when sometimes I was lucky enough to get a recording from the mixing desk.

So this it, warts and all resulting in a proper live album with no overdubs! At this point Twisted Illusion were a four piece featuring Steve Revier on second guitar and as usual frontman Matt Jones takes no prisoners with apathetic audiences as his first tirade of “I’ll take a few applauses then throw a nuclear grenade at you”. They tear into opener ‘Imitate Me Part One’ like gladiators to the lions. The lyrics are barked out with aplomb by Matt along with pint glass shattering screams and Mark Wagstaff on bass guitar is no slouch either, point proven by his strong backing vocals. Musically it hurtles along on a myriad of breathtaking time changes as its eight minute duration whizzes by.

‘Hatred Is A Virtue’ follows a request to the sound engineer of “We rely on a specific blend of ego and reverb” and is a rarity of their catalogue that it has a chorus you can sing to, that is if you can holler it back to the band like a banshee and it contains the album title during “Don’t worry about me, I have music, I have life!” ‘A Moment Of Lucidity’ lives up to its title as it ebbs and flows on gentle guitar chords, a no compromise vocal tour de force and air guitars are a necessity when Matt and Steve let rip.

A quip of ” Will everybody stop accusing me of being mentally subnormal and an Oasis fan” precedes ‘Online And Inline’ and personally I think is the most uplifting song Matt has penned. Shared vocals with Mark give it a jovial bounce. It’s a short, sharp adrenaline rush backed by virtuoso drumming from Matt McDade. Favourite song of mine here is the emotionally draining ‘Nobody’s Child’ as the extremely personal lyrics get into your every pore as does the main guitar lick as it kicks into full on guitar outro. Final song ‘Apocalypse #LOL’ arrives far too soon and the intro will always remind me of ‘Blowing Free’ by Wishbone Ash (sorry Matt!). It’s a worthy gig ender with Matt shouting out Steve for hating Queen and at the end of the guitar overload ending Matt and Mark harmonise with “Find Steve somebody to love”.

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