When post-rock was very much the in thing a few years ago, when being a student automatically meant you to listened to Explosions in the Sky, when even Hollywood movies mentioned GY!BE, not many bands took that lush atmosphere sound and added prominent vocals to much success. I Like Trains, then iLiKETRAiNS, emergence in 2005 then proved a blissful rarity as they produced this familiarly ambitious soundscape working superbly with vocalist Dave Martin’s moody emotive words. Tonight the Leeds based four-piece play to an appreciative Tut’s audience that has been brimming over with anticipation for the treat in store.
Support tonight comes in three very different forms: Firstly Glasgow duo Holy Mountain assault the ears of the crowd with their brand of high energy, hairy yet superbly entertaining hardcore. Then it is the turn of Norfolk’s indie pop darlings The Kabeebies who deliver delightful pop tunes which would not look out of place in a Los Campesinos! set. Last on before ILT, is Nottingham’s experimentalists Swimming who work through a set of very diverse tracks without nailing a specific sound that may take them a step further.
As ILT take the stage and the smoke rises around them there is an overwhelming awe coming from the crowd. ILT’s audience loves them and it hard to see how anyone could not as they watch gob smacked as the band drive through a set of strong yet emotively brilliant tracks. It is difficult to watch ILT without a quick mention of local boys The Twilight Sad who also produce that epically strong sound with outstanding, moving vocals and the audience reception ILT receive is comparable in so ways to that which you would find at a TS gig.
Almost an hour into the set, as ILT announces they are playing their last song, almost the first sound is heard from the silently admiring audience. You can safely say that not one person in that room wanted the show to end there. There’s quite possibly some poetic irony in the fact that no one cares that I Like Trains are actually responsible for people missing trains, me for one. Still the sets closer ‘Spencer Perceval’, the standout from 2007’s ‘Elegies to Lessons Learnt’, is a fittingly perfect end to an engrossing set from start to finish. Even the slightly gimmicky train conductor jackets do not matter as this band has earned their rights to any such eccentrics.
New single, ‘Sea of Regrets’ was available to buy from Monday, and by the sound of the new tracks on show tonight we have an unmissable album to look forward to.
Sunday 18 October 2009
Thursday 15 October 2009
The Big Pink @ King Tut's 14/10/09
This may make me sound slightly hypocritical considering the review I wrote for this show on a certain website, but that review is completely honest, however it does miss out some vital details regarding the show.
The Big Pink themselves do have an image that could see them breaking the mainstream, and they certainly have a song in ‘Dominoes’ that could well be a hit. It is true they can appeal to a vast spectrum of music fans, they have become somewhat darlings of Pitchfork while they have been shot into the mainstream through Guitar Hero adverts and being featured on the universal jukebox every chain bar seems to host.
I must clear up that the band’s sound is not shoegaze-y in any way, comparisons with My Bloody Valentine and M83 seem completely unjust. The band play a mass appealing kind of electro rock, which does carry some slightly dark and gothic undertones, but also comes with that Oasis-ish lad-y wanker swagger that could see this band out jump any contempories on popularity. The band have been compared to The Verve a fair bit, which I can see as just, they’re like The Verve before Richard Ashcroft became such an unbearable twat that even Wayne Coyne wanted to hit him.
Still the band is enjoyable, the set is solid and both ‘Velvet’ and ‘Dominoes’ are brilliant tracks. The latter in particular, inspires a massive buzz and full on sing-a-long from the capacity crowd on a scale that you only see rarely at gigs these days. ‘Dominoes’ is exactly the kind of song you can imagine some drunkard singing to themselves on a bus home, much like that incessant ‘der der der’ nonsense from the Fratellis ‘Chelsea Dagger’, only with much more charm and of course quality.
However despite the soon to be anthem, the stand out from tonight’s show is the support from Glasgow based outfit Findo Gask. This band are a shining light in the current Glasgow scene and their blissfully bleeping pop gems, from opener ‘One Eight Zero’ to closer ‘Go Faster Stripe’, could get any slightly open minded music fan dancing. For most people who will probably read this Findo don’t need any introduction but just incase let their music speak for itself: http://www.myspace.com/findogaskuk. Catch them at their monthly residency, Crufts at Nice ‘n Sleazy’s this Saturday. This month Findo are joined by Copy Haho and North Atlantic Oscillation, it’ll should be a treat! I’m sure all the bands will be thanked for their performance onstage on Saturday, which Findo rather ignorantly tonight were not.
The Big Pink themselves do have an image that could see them breaking the mainstream, and they certainly have a song in ‘Dominoes’ that could well be a hit. It is true they can appeal to a vast spectrum of music fans, they have become somewhat darlings of Pitchfork while they have been shot into the mainstream through Guitar Hero adverts and being featured on the universal jukebox every chain bar seems to host.
I must clear up that the band’s sound is not shoegaze-y in any way, comparisons with My Bloody Valentine and M83 seem completely unjust. The band play a mass appealing kind of electro rock, which does carry some slightly dark and gothic undertones, but also comes with that Oasis-ish lad-y wanker swagger that could see this band out jump any contempories on popularity. The band have been compared to The Verve a fair bit, which I can see as just, they’re like The Verve before Richard Ashcroft became such an unbearable twat that even Wayne Coyne wanted to hit him.
Still the band is enjoyable, the set is solid and both ‘Velvet’ and ‘Dominoes’ are brilliant tracks. The latter in particular, inspires a massive buzz and full on sing-a-long from the capacity crowd on a scale that you only see rarely at gigs these days. ‘Dominoes’ is exactly the kind of song you can imagine some drunkard singing to themselves on a bus home, much like that incessant ‘der der der’ nonsense from the Fratellis ‘Chelsea Dagger’, only with much more charm and of course quality.
However despite the soon to be anthem, the stand out from tonight’s show is the support from Glasgow based outfit Findo Gask. This band are a shining light in the current Glasgow scene and their blissfully bleeping pop gems, from opener ‘One Eight Zero’ to closer ‘Go Faster Stripe’, could get any slightly open minded music fan dancing. For most people who will probably read this Findo don’t need any introduction but just incase let their music speak for itself: http://www.myspace.com/findogaskuk. Catch them at their monthly residency, Crufts at Nice ‘n Sleazy’s this Saturday. This month Findo are joined by Copy Haho and North Atlantic Oscillation, it’ll should be a treat! I’m sure all the bands will be thanked for their performance onstage on Saturday, which Findo rather ignorantly tonight were not.
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