Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Only All We Are could be magnificent enough, dare to be different enough, to play venues in Liverpool that nobody else might ever think of. If a night in Williamson Tunnels on the edge of town, a venue more in keeping for the wake that was held for the much missed British horror writer James Herbert, was taken with as much seriousness and endeavour as performing for others might approach a night at the Echo Arena, then to play a selection of songs inside a hotel is to be considered just as different and inspiring.

Inside a room at the Aloft Hotel in the centre of town, a space that had all the features and hallmarks of sitting inside a regal Tudor country estate, the wooden panelling polished within an inch of its life but dark and foreboding, historic and tempting, All We Are, Richard O’ Flynn, Luis Santos and Guro Gikling, performed with a sense of the elegance, a touch of the refinery that these three musicians bring to any occasion and the mood laid out more than matched the thought of opulence and grace that may have been attached to the walls of the Hotel’s most beautifully presented rooms.

All We Are, three musicians of such artistic vision, to be the only band on inside the room on the evening, to be part of a secret gathering that only got announced as the February day drew ever closer to its completion and in which the thought in the city was perhaps more tinged with its football success, is to be thought of just as highly as their atmospheric evenings in Liverpool at the Williamson Tunnels, inside the part forgotten but awe-inspiring St. Bride’s Church or the welcoming headiness offered by Leaf.

With a set list comprised of songs such as Feel Safe, the gorgeous splendour of Ebb and Flow, Stone, Utmost Good, a very beautiful cover of Caribou’s Can’t Do Without You, Something About You and the coolness personification of Keep Me Alive, historical quirkiness seemed satisfied, was sated that the threesome once more gave a stirring account of their music but also provided for their fans the supreme measure of mystery within the walls of the Aloft’s resonating charm.

To hear of a secret gig on the day, is to throw plans out of the window, to let the diary, well planned in advance so crossovers don’t occur and in which the threat of momentary boredom is forever staved off like a dragon being kept at bay from a treasure chest containing the plunder of the kingdom, become placed completely into disarray and magnificent chaos and for All We Are, that treasure chest is well and truly stocked.

It may have been short but it was most certainly sweet and worth every moment. Once more All We Are throw ominous beauty into the world and let chaos suffer in its wake.

Ian D. Hall