BILTONE
The Nerve Centre, 13th August 2010.
The launch party of Catalyst Media's multi media event The Nerve Centre showcasing grassroots artists, performers, poets, musicians and the like was a hive of creative energy, with people of all ages flowing in and out, drinking open night wine merrily, talking amiably on a diverse amount of topics from the radical to the spontaneous and generally filling the once empty and, sadly, soon to be demolished Rapid Paint shop on Renshaw Street with a well deserved relevance in an area of relative nothingness.
Around half way through the launch party, Liverpool atmospheric balladeers BILTONE slipped quietly into the atmosphere and started setting up for their quietly electric show which made an obviously energetic crowd of what the band called "Lefties", in a reference to the political aims of the exhibition, on several occasions have to gag their excitement in a serious way in order to fully comprehend the bands atmospheric musings. Many bands have a sound to capture an audience straight away, and Biltone have that power as well. Their set began quietly and gracefully and took several songs for the band to get the ears of the crowd in full listening mode, (although with the launch party buzz going round that was easily forgiven!), but once the crowd were listening, they were enraptured by the delicate framing of their water colour like sounds.
Performing in front of a good crowd with evocative art at their backs and next to the once commercial shop entrance with security gates that no longer secure anything, the band started off with the subtle and stayed in that mood all through the set, often punctuated with some well placed asides, such as this reviewers favorite aside about "that guy taking photos of me" – that is, me! The humour was a great counterpoint to the delicate sound of the violin inflected songs such as the intriguingly titled The Pyramids Of Llangollen, or the familiar titled Hope Street, which may be a reference to our own Hope Street, which sailed around the gallery like a sweet musical spell bringing the assembled crowd to a hushed applause at the end of the song.
Highlights included the aforementioned cross-audience banter with the band, a magical moment where the violinist cradled his violin down and started plucking it like a particularly sweet sounding guitar whilst making what could have been whale noises into the microphone and my second mention of the night, “I thought the press were here but it’s just one person!”. One could easily say that Biltone were a good addition to the ambience of The Nerve Centre with their quirky sound and localised sense of humour and when singer and guitarist Joe bumped into me later and recognised me as the camera toting mobster he mentioned during the set, I assured him his soul was safe with me and congratulated him on an inner-eye opening set that was more than worthy of another listen when they next appear live.
Go see Biltone, and bring your biggest camera!
Review and Photo by Sebastian Gahan.
This review appears in Issue 5 of Bido Lito.
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