All We Are at St. Brides Church. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Originally published by L.S. Media. April 29th 2012

L.S. Media Rating *****

You can count on the fingers on one hand the amount of bands that could get away with playing a video of their latest single at the start of a gig, that figure would be greatly reduced to one once you get to see the phenomenal All We Are on You Tube.

The video itself was a taster and what a taster it was, for the main attraction of seeing this set of fantastic musicians give a sterling performance in aid of the launch of the new E.P. We Hunt. If the new video was the appetiser then what followed was a five course meal served up in the best silver service and with the very best butler supplied free of charge and with very best Guinness served up afterwards.

There is something about St. Brides Church that brings out the very best in any entertainer or musician that plays within its halls; it really is unlike any other venue. It also seems to inspire beyond contemplation and as the three support acts had proved during their slots, so All We Are proved as they played songs that bought out something primal, something real and tangible within every member of the near capacity audience.

Richard O Flynn, Guro Gikling and Luis Santos may be three musicians that you normally wouldn’t put together on stage as their backgrounds and styles, on the face of it, seem so disparate, delve deeper as the audience did at St. Brides and when they played at Williamson Tunnels last year and you will see why this music works so well in three of the finest musicians to have graduated from Paul McCartney’s L.I.P.A.

The band opened up the music part of the set with the fantastic Red Sky and This Low. From there the night was never going to back down and retreat into a shell, there was too much invested and gained by the sound that three superb musicians were creating. From Richard O’ Flynn’s drum beat which mimicked the heart of the city, pounding and wonderfully out of step with the rest of the country to Guro’s sweeping vocals and guitar playing and Luis’ intelligent musical style there was never a dull moment and there was never a more entranced and captivated audience.

In a gig full of thrills it was strangely a cover version of Chris Isaak’s sensational song Wicked Game that caught the imagination and showed that even the most haunting of songs can be taken up another notch and given a spectral and pressurised reading that chilled the blood and gladdened the heart.

Other songs to be played by the band included the beautiful Cardhouse and Satellite. All of which proved the point that sometimes you don’t need big arenas to get an audience going, it just takes the right band of which thankfully in Liverpool and the wider area there are many but rarely could any of them have captured a moment quite so well as All We Are at St. Brides Church.

Ian D. Hall