Wednesday, 09/10/03 Fi Lo Radio, Oceansize, Kinesis @ Barfly, Liverpool

Fi-lo Radio are pretty damn funky for a band of their scale. The poses are all there, as is the image and yes; even the t-shirts are a good choice. Sadly their songs lack any change of pace and after half the set had passed it felt as though there was a desperate need for inhalers on stage.

Where Fi-Lo Radio took me from excited to slightly bored Oceansize picked me up and threw me about. Whatever their frequencies might have been they were matching my own natural frequency and I was left feeling nothing short of nauseous, even threw ear plugs their bass was pummelling at my head. Serious words should be had with this band, loud does not equal good.

Kinesis, they stand on top of a cliff’s edge, looking down on the wreckage of bands like System of a Down, otherwise great except for a constant need to preach their politics. Fortunately Kinesis have chosen to remain a band that put performance of their music first and keep their politics back, but not hidden.

Still with the white tees but sporting snazzy new hair cuts they come riding the crest of their debut album, 'Handshakes for Bullets', boasting some of the best tunes to come out of Lancashire since Manchester and Liverpool were stripped out.  When requested by the audience, older b-side ‘…And The Flowers Are Dead’ is knocked out by the group with confidence despite admitting they’d not played it in months. Meanwhile their lead guitarist remains the all time king of mid-song guitar swaps that make the Ferrari Pit Team look slow; having already witnessed at a previous show no less than three different guitars for one song. After an absolutely storming show that can leave no one in doubt that Kinesis are a force to be reckoned with on the British music scene, it leaves one wondering why they’re still playing such small venues.

Photos by Sakura Henderson