Call Upon The Author

I have to hit the ground running this evening as the moment the barmaid hands me my Jack Daniels & Coke than local post-rockers Aeroplane Attack take to the stage built on the rock solid foundation of Rusty Sheriff’s drums and K.O. Desai’s throbbing bass, their three guitarists overlap, supporting each other one moment and clashing the next to create captivating soundscapes. This is music to lose yourself in and the swelling crowds are lapping it up. Next are Nottingham boys Swimming, the material is solid but they don’t seem to capture the audience until their final number, when they finally break out the more interesting sound that runs throughout their recent album.
When The Strange Death Of Liberal England appear there is an immediate hush, it’s clear who this audience are here to see. As Andrew Wright dances around, one hand fastened to his keyboard and front man Adam Woolway’s unique vocals fill the room even those huddled in the bar are quiet and attentive (well, relatively). Having seen them last with an orchestra supporting them, it takes a couple of songs to get used to them just being a band again but by the time of ‘Like A Curtain Fallin’ my feet are joining everyone else’s in tapping along involuntarily. TSDOLE are sometimes labelled the best band to emerge from Portsmouth in recent years and on this evidence it’s a compelling argument!
By the time I Like Trains start their set the audience is buzzing and the doom and gloom of the Leeds quartet’s music seems to struggle to make an immediate impact. These guys are clearly very good, but I can’t help but wonder if others feel as I do, that after the joy of Strange Death’s set, I Like Trains are bringing me down a little. Nonetheless the songs are very well written and the band, ploughing the same furrows as the likes of Editors, write some impressively melancholy songs. Perhaps they’d have affected me more if they’d swapped places on the bill with the guys who had preceded them though?