iLiKETRAiNS REViEWED! LiVE AND LOCOMOTIVE...
Moles is bristling with people accumulated around bar at nearing 11PM on a typical Saturday night. The crowd is made of the bands and fans alike and everyone is waiting for the live music to come on... Then, iLiKETRAiNS walk on to the stage from being just members of the crowd to take up their places in front of us, the drums tucked away at the back, the two guitarists and bassist occupying the main part of the stage and the trumpeter stood in his corner behind his notorious projector to fulfil the dual task of playing with the band and providing the visual show...
They launch into it, and their sound is good, the projector shows images of people skiing on snow-capped mountains with titles asking 'Do You Like Snow?' and the cacophony present is euphonious and encapsulating, yet there are little niggling faults in the sound and Dave (vocalist/guitarist) apologises for the "technicals" afterwards. Cue some actually convincingly funny crowd banter and after all the problems are fixed up the night's entertainment really begins...
'BEFORETHECURTAiNSCLOSE part i' is next and as ever it is delivered gloriously, every part of the instrumentation adding a truly immense dynamic to this formidable live sound. The assembled crowd, albeit small, are definitely into it, one guy bouncing off the walls and another guy losing his head in the front row.
Then there's 'Part ii' which is equally triumphant, the unmistakable delay patch on the lead-guitar, the incomparable low vocal tones, the hard-hitting drums and pounding bass tying it all down with the trumpet melding in an entire other tier to the complete and beautiful sound of iLiKETRAiNS. This band have a style that is unique, an approach to writing songs quite unparalleled at the moment and a live sound and stage presence that goes far above little venues like Moles.
It's onto the highlight of the evening, the recitation of the awe-inspiring new single 'A Rook House For Bobby,' just as brilliant as it is on record, a mind-blowing epic of post-rock splendour coming at ya with ferocity and fire... And then, disappointingly it's on to the final instalment of iLiKETRAiNS wonderment for tonight and I'm sure that the whole crowd could very easily have stood there for another four of the same again.
'Stainless Steel' is the huge, reeling sound that brings their show to a climax, a whirling great piece of dramatic and evocative mastery ending in the hypnotic squeal of angry guitars left to their own devices as the band exeunt. After a short gap, Redjetson come onto the stage and play through their set of post-rcokisms tinged with emotive motifs and entrancing conglomerated piles of sound, and although they certainly knew their way around a time-signature, they were the lesser band of the night, and that's not saying they weren't any good. 9/13
But, where it was at, was with the first band this evening, iLiKETRAiNS live prove themselves to be a locomotive tour-de-force deserving of concerts on a much grander scale. Get them off the playground gig circuit because with a sound like they possess the world is their oyster. Certainly worth keeping your eye peeled for... For their performance tonight 11/13. After Redjetson went off, some second-rate dance music came on and I left the band to it, jigging on the dancefloor like professional hardcore ravers.