Illuminatus
9 July 2004
Rouge, London
Tonight`s gig was promoted by Up All Night who have been putting on gigs supporting new music for a number of years now in London. Rouge is their newest and biggest venue and provides an evening of live music with a choice of three rock/indie bands in the upstairs bar and three acoustic/jazz acts in the basement.
Having never been to Rouge before we were initially confused to be escorted down a long red carpet by a hefty bouncer before entering the venue. The no trainers or hats sign, which is not applicable tonight, and plush interior would suggest the venue is probably more used to London`s clubbing crowd, but tonight it provided a great place to spend an evening with a mixed group of friends, i.e. not all metallers.
Illuminatus describe their sound as post-metal and the fact that, whilst they are metal at the core, they do branch out further explains perhaps how they had found their way onto tonight`s bill. Up All Night generally doesn`t feature metal bands and their promoter seemed a little confused that our metal reviews site was attending tonight. Illuminatus bassist Mark Freestone says he`s going to blame me for drawing Up All Night`s attention to them being metal if they don`t get any more gigs, though he`s comically horrified when I suggest his band is not thoroughly metal.
We arrive in time to catch second band of the evening Inch Blue, whose Chameleons meets Joy Division sound doesn`t really fall into the realm of Rockers Digest so I won`t go into a review. Their dark sound however did probably benefit Illuminatus by providing a bridge to their moody metal sounds.
So could Illuminatus win over this mainly indie crowd? Keyboard player Dave Crosby`s drinking/Motorhead parody t-shirt may have given a clue that there was a metal band on stage, but as they blast into Emotion Sickness it`s blindingly obvious and there were a few stunned looking people taking a step backwards. However, this song is full of twist and turns and as the powerful intro gives way to the gentle melodic verse the stunned looks turn to curious and there`s a shuffle forwards again.
The set tonight is the same as the recent Ruskfest appearance except for the inclusion of Wargasm, thankfully at the expense of the cover of For Whom The Bell Tolls. Much of the set melts together as a trail of feedback from the previous song leads into the next. I thought Illuminatus had decided to blend in tonight by the way of little stage banter, until Julio Taylor roars "Good evening London" in a supremely metal style which caused a number of grins.
By this point I`ve lost two of my five non-metal mates to the jazz bands downstairs but Illuminatus were generally holding their own with this distinctly different audience to what they would usually play to. This is aided by the fact that the sound is spot on allowing you to hear each instrument that goes in to building Illuminatus` wall of misery.
White Lies is my personal favourite of the set, but its closer Ejector seat where the band really cut loose. Proceeding it`s finale, Taylor thanks the crowd and tells us t-shirts, cds and all kind of goodies are on sale afterwards, to which the GP, who is in attendance tonight, questions "Shoes?" "Yes, Illuminatus shoes", laughs Taylor. Dave Crosby then proceeds to dislodge his keyboard from his stand wandering about the stage with it whilst Jon Martin attacks his guitar with a violin bow in a suitably stirring climax.
I know Up All Night fairly well because in my bass playing days I played a number of gigs with them. If I were to pick up my bass again Illuminatus is the type of band I`d like to be playing in. Look out Mark Freestone, I may not have got any Illuminatus shoes tonight, but I`ll keep my eyes on yours!
Illuminatus set list:
Emotion Sickness / Suburban Symmetry / No Title / Solitude / White Lies / Wargasm / Ejector Seat
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