iLiKETRAiNS @ The Cooler, Bristol (20/10/2009)

iLiKETRAiNS are a band I’ve never been a huge fan of, I’ve always appreciated them so to speak, but never when someones asked me “So what bands do you like?” have I even vaguely considered the possibility of saying iLiKETRAiNS. Frankly I’d be even less likely to type to someone that I like them; the level of concentration I have to put in to type such a ridiculously formatted name is far too high. Anyway, when push comes to shove, this hasn’t really changed, but yet again, I really appreciated and enjoyed their music, especially the sound they produced live.

As a disclaimer; I don’t consider myself a music critic, nor am I any longer interested in trying to be one. I spent a large chunk of my middle teenager years constructing completely under worked opinions, with little to no insight, about the music I love. Sure I’m still going to write about gigs I go to, post a few photographs, and even say what things worked for me and what didn’t, but don’t expect anything actually insightful.

So with that in mind, all I’m going to say about the support acts is that I will have probably forgotten about them very soon; pretty dull. iLiKETRAiNS themselves were excellent of course. Really nice full on sound, which to be honest I was quite surprised at, being as it was at the cooler. I think it might just be that I’d always assumed the sound was bad at the cooler, I’m not really sure why. As far as I’m concerned however, they were at their best when a bit quieter however and the unusual vocals and simple guitar was laid bare. Even better throughout the song Spencer Perceval, which was my highlight of the set.

With reference to the title of this post, they unfortunately did not play the song which contains that wonderful line ( A Rook House For Bobby ). Still whilst I was waiting for it throughout the set I never missed it too much. Conclusion: the ticket was money well spent and I enjoyed it hugely.

Moving on, I took quite a few photos at the beginning of the iLiKETRAiNS set. I followed the normal rule of take some photos in the first or second song, and maybe shoot another song half way through, but mostly keep your camera out of the way; you’re there to enjoy the music! Unfortunately there was another photographer there that didn’t really follow this mentality. He shot the entire set, from beginning to end with flash. It was supremely annoying in all honesty, more than enough to strengthen my wariness even further of being a nuisance at gigs with my camera. Part of me understands why he was doing it. iLiKETRAiNS are one of those bands that have that image that means they believe in hugely under lighting themselves (at least from a photographers perspective) and so in the photos I took I was in a constant battle against underexposure, poor focus and bad motion blur. Still, this is the challenge of gig photography, flash to me is under most circumstances in pretty bad taste. Anyway I felt like having a word with the guy, but the opportunity passed and so I’m sure he’ll shoot many more gigs like that, but to me, he’s just not getting the point.