Thursday night was the first of three gigs in four days, The Reasoning at Crewe Limelight. I’d previously seen their first ever gig at the Uplands Tavern in Swansea back in January. That was very much a low-key warmup gig in preparation for the tour to come. This one was a higher profile show at a larger rock club, which happens to be one of my favourite small venues. I phoned the venue the night before the gig, to be informed they’d sold a grand total of 13 tickets, so I concluded I’d have no problem getting tickets on the door. In the end, fears of an almost empty venue proved unfounded; there were about 150 people there, about the same number as for Karnataka a few weeks back. Of that 150 I recognised an awful lot of familiar faces; the north-west Mostly Autumn fanbase had turned up in force.
Support was Touchstone, a band I hadn’t seen before, although I’d read some favourable reviews. They play the same sort of blend of melodic hard and progressive textures as the headliners. This gig marked the debut of their new singer, Kim Serviour, yet another of those performers who make me feel old by not having been born when I started going to gigs. They played an entertaining and energetic set; I think we’ll be hearing more from this band in future.
The Reasoning didn’t hit the stage until gone 10pm. Their performance was an order of magnitude better than the somewhat nervous set in Swansea three months before. The whole band were far tighter and more confident, and were clearly enjoying being on stage. Naturally they drew much of their set from their excellent debut album “Awakening”. They still included a few Karnataka favourites, the highlight of which was still the amazing ‘Talk to Me’. Those more atmospheric Karnataka oldies don’t quite sit comfortably with the rockier and more guitar-driven new material, but at this stage in their career it’s still great to hear them performed live. While I don’t remember the complete setlist, I think they played the whole of the new album. The encore was the atmospheric epic ‘Within Cold Glass’ followed by their barnstorming cover of ‘Stormbringer’, with Rachel singing Glenn Hughes’ vocal parts. I’m sure there was a hint of Tommy Bolin in Dylan’s guitar fills too.
Since I had some time to spare before the late train out of Crewe, I had time for a brief chat with Dylan, Matt and Rachel, and Kim from Touchstone. They all remembered me from Swansea; I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing.
