The Handsome Family, St. Giles

Championing contemporary Americana with a theatrical Southern Gothic vibe, Brett and Rennie Sparks have been performing as a band since 1993, and have since released nine studio albums- most recently their 2013 effort Wilderness.
A cult band with a devoted following, their music has recently found a new audience after the Handsome’s song Far From Any Road was featured as the theme for HBO’s hugely successful Southern Gothic police drama True Detective.
Pitting visceral lyrics against lurching country rhythms, and sparse traditional instruments against twanging electric guitar, their trademark off-kilter gothic Americana draws you in slowly to its macabre world.
Brett Sparks’ plaintive baritone rumble is the folksy conduit for quirky and morbid lyrics, often based around death and murder. “This is why people OD on pills and jump from the golden gate bridge”, Sparks sings on Weightless Again . Arlene , a track from their first album, was banned from some US radio stations- apparently they found the song’s narrative about a stalker abducting and murdering a woman unsavoury.  
The Handsome Family dress the part too- with Brett’s woodsman’s beard and Rennie’s vintage dresses, for one night St. Giles will be the closest thing in London to a nightmarish frontier bordello.