Under the Victorian railway arches of Swinegate iLiKETRAiNS’ new opening song (“25 Sins”) chorussed “this town is burning”. Ashley Dean’s visuals projected huge flames onto the back of the stage, raging across a dark silhouette of the familiar Leeds skyline. David Martin’s richly doleful voice and haunted eyes locked us into a morbid fascination. The band’s funeral threads told us reams about theatre, story telling and the power of tragedy confronted. And then, at the end of the night we all sang with solemnity and pride, reawakening the voices of those whose hands and hearts had built what Mr Beeching had taken apart.
iLiKETRAiNS had looked very well throughout the proceedings: serious, tall, confident and authoritative. These things help when history, biography and music are being offered in such large and thrilling measures. Leeds has been the band’s home town and cradle since at least 2002, so they would get a good hearing tonight whatever happened. But their belief in the old virtues of hard work and self-improvement had guaranteed a huge extra effort for us - new songs, new visuals, new costumes. And in the main finale they gave us the massive ten minutes of the new single release “Spencer Perceval”. We wondered, dreaming of death, whether their funeral armbands and black ties were for the assassinated Prime Minister, for the terror-struck assassin before his noose, or for the relentless death of the links with our own livid past. It was a performance to grab all your senses and all your mind.
The Cockpit’s acoustics notwithstanding, iLiKETRAiNS sounded as good tonight as I have ever heard them. The depth and intensity of Simon Fogal’s pounding drum sound is a doom-laden rock on which the waves of finely modulated guitars (Dave Martin and Guy Bannister) bass (Alistair Bowis), synth (Bannister again) , cornet (Ashley Dean) and voice (sometimes, thrillingly, three voices) crash in successive crescendos. Sometimes the control is unbearable. The build-up is so careful, so meticulous, so heavy with melody and narrative … and then the demons are released in thunder and roaring.
The iLiKETRAiNS repertoire continues to expand. When that Beggars Banquet album gets finished for the autumn of this year there are going to be some hard choices to make about what to leave off. “Voice of Reason”, introduced tonight, could well be their next single and was a real highlight. So too the grim account of the Plague, “We All Fall Down” - with its roll call of victims scrolled over the backdrop as the song ended. “The Deception” and “Remnants Of An Army” were two more from the growing list of newer compositions. The strength of the material is that although the orchestrally ambitious development could (and does) attract the "post-rock" epithet, iLiKETRAiNS make songs with memorable tunes and economically terse lyrics that haunt the memory and send ripples of association out through the subconscious. These are songs that have a life of their own. Tonight's list went as follows:
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25 Sins
A Rook House for Bobby
The Deception
We All Fall Down
Terra Nova
Remnants Of An Army
Voice Of Reason
Spencer Perceval
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Before the Curtains Close part 2
The Beeching Report
The evening had been given a great opening with Tom Woodhead (singer from ¡FORWARD, RUSSIA!) doing his nicely varied ANTEATER project. Looped live vocal, keyboard melody, laptop techno and a whole swathe of table-top FX add up to s pretty lively show. After the second tune with its mournful spirit voices, the third (unnamed) piece shook the building and the crowds internal organs with a massive bass noise. Splendid stuff.
HOPE OF THE STATES' offshoot TROUBLES were the main support, squandering four guitarists, a violin, a trumpet, and no vocals or drum kit on not much to write home about. The crowd were polite and pleased enough to clap warmly. But there was little more than general colour-wash background against which something else could have, but mostly didn't, take place.
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