Kicked off tour for loving Satan, Twin Temple head toward rock stardom

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Set us as preferred Last month, Alexandra James walked onstage at at the Hollywood Palladium, looked out over the sold-out crowd and knew that Satan worked in mysterious ways.Back in July, her L.A.band Twin Temple — famed for diabolical, occult-y riffs on doo-wop and girl-group rock — was booked to tour with country star Charley Crockett.

Crockett had somehow missed the memo that the band behind singles like “Let’s Have a Satanic Orgy” might prove controversial.He dropped Twin Temple just before the tour (“I thought they were like Black Sabbath, but they ain’t.

Not today, Satan,” Crockett said at the time).But there’s no rest for the wicked.

A week later, Jack White, moved by their plight and inspired by their sound, offered them an opening slot on his Palladium stand instead — “Get in front of me, Satan!” White implored.At the Palladium, James and her bandmate/husband Zachary took the stage in all-black leather, with thigh-high boots, swords, an inverted crucifix necklace and a giant silver Baphomet pendant.

Alexandra grinned as she recounted the recent tour debacle to the crowd.“I think we traded up!” she yelled to howls and horns thrown in the audience.“It just felt like a wicked Cinderella story,” Alexandra said backstage, just before the show.“We’ve been harassed and pulled off things for our entire career.

It’s always been like, ‘Oh, great, someone’s sending me death threats.Do we need to buy a gun?’ But all the other times it’s happened, there’s never been anything beautiful that’s grown out of it.”After a decade of terrifying squares, avoiding religious stalkers and navigating label purgatory, Twin Temple might finally be at the precipice of what they’ve long manifested — rock stardom.

With a beautifully performed new LP, “Doomed Lovers,” which places t...