I Like Trains @ King Tut's 17/10/09

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.