iLiKEiLiKETRAiNS

Due to me messing up timing slightly, and the gig being quite early, I completely missed the first support band (Cat Matador) and missed half of the second support (Kyte). The second half of Kyte's set was very good though. Vocally much like Mercury Rev, I thought. Quite "big" sonically, which I like. Lots of effects on their guitars.

The crowd wasn't enormous, which was a shame. I'd guess the venue (Oxford Academy, the old big room at the Zodiac) was about half full, which didn't help with the atmosphere. I saw them in the second half of last year in the same place and I'm pretty sure it was more full. The audience weren't great (during Rook House For Bobby) there was a couple next to me who couldn't keep their tongues out of the others' mouths, which was irritating. They're playing a song that's not only pretty damn fantastic, not only is it about one of the most interesting men of the 20th Century, but they have some brilliant visuals projected behind the band. I fail to see why someone would pay £8 to stand with their backs to all that.

A few weeks ago they were robbed of a night's takings in Italy by some people pretending to be police officers, and tonight they "dedicated" their last single to a "fake Italian policeman". The song in question was called "The Deception", which is fairly apt. They played a nice mix of songs from their "debut" mini album Progress Reform and their proper debut album Elegies to Lessons Learnt plus a new song which, contrasting with most of their historical songs, appeared to be a bleak look into the future unless we all get our arses in gear and try to stop oblivion.

All in all, thoroughly fantastic. The only let down being the fact that it seemed nowhere in West London (well, Uxbridge and Hillingdon) had a copy of the Guardian this evening so I didn't have anything to read on the coach to Oxford.

Then whilst walking back from Uxbridge station to my house, whilst listening to Radio 4's In Our Time podcast discussing materialism (not consumerism), I noticed that there was a man standing on the pavement bending down putting some trousers on. That's the second time I've walked past people in Uxbridge with their trousers down. It's almost becoming a habit.