God Is An Astronaut

For this night of post-rock in rain-swept Islington the doors opened at 6:30pm and the first band started just before 7pm. The night would end around 10pm, and this may be simply because post-rock songs are bloody long affairs that you just can’t rush.

Butterfly Explosion, though having a somewhat generic post-rock-ish name, kicked things off on the night with grace and an impressive cacophony of noise and occasional vocals. There wasn’t anything groundbreaking on show, but for the opening act they were very impressive, utilising keyboard crescendos in their climaxes. They're a friendly bunch of people hailing from Ireland, and their debut album, ‘Lost Trails’, is definitely worth checking out.

Caspian were next and took things to another level with an infectious enthusiasm for headrocking anthemic tunes from their recent album, plus a few new songs. Their presence was the liveliest of the night, and true to their style they managed to mix bombast with melody; there is always a soul-grabbing backbone to their tunes. Eventually every band member; save for the drummer, ended up dropping their respective instruments and played percussion, banging away with drumsticks in a circle; the climax of their rousing set. Not content at being billed as support, they were practically co-headliners.

God Is An Astronaut soon after appeared in fog and silhouette and remained so for most of their set. Iconic visual presence compliment an increasingly iconic band who are still humble enough to acknowledge to the audience their surprise at having made it this far. Electronic beats flow through their music, not overtaking the proceedings like 65daysofstatic, but always an undercurrent to their trademark sound.

Overall an excellent night of post-rock goodness, all smooth sailing without a hitch, each band appearing on time like clockwork. The 02 should be proud of their organisation and variety of music, here’s hoping for more showings from the genre.