Please Please You presents
Personal Trainer
Trueman & The Indoor League + The New Solar Drones
Wednesday 2nd November, 7.30pm
Tickets are £8 (+ b/f) in advance (more on the door) and are available from See Tickets.

Most bands should be familiar with the honeymoon phase, those lofty formative stages where creativity blooms as the purest of fruits. The fingers itch, the eyes water off to rapturous highs, the body trembles electric with creative energy waiting to be unleashed upon unsuspecting onlookers. Unfortunately the honeymoon phase is usually just that: a phase. After each landmark or hurdle you clear, things tend to get more and more convoluted. Those impulsive why not’s can sour into routines and lots of contemplation in between said routines.

Thank heavens, nobody told indie rock crusaders Personal Trainer this was all supposed to be temporary. The Amsterdam-based collective seek out sharp-witted ways the prolong the innate joy of being a band just plugging in and playing. Willem Smit, the group’s conductor and cheerleader, started the band as an ultimate love letter to the vibrant scene he himself inhabits. Initially it meant playing shows in impromptu lineups, with individuals of varying skill levels, interests and sensibilities. At the hub of this volatile energy, Smit embraced his role as jester in court, performing hi own songs like a lost tourist on a Kareoke bender.

This enthusiasm was reciprocal, as bands ranging from Pip Blom, Bull, Home Counties, The Klittens to Global Charming – as well as Smit’s other outfits Canshaker Pi and Steve French – frequently rubbed elbows on stage. Personal Trainer shows became rousing rituals, with songs that more or less sounded like all your favourite indie rock luminaries jam-packed into big-beaming pop psalms. The Delirium of playing “The Lazer” for the umpteenth time would perpetually elevate to religious fervour. Understandably so: it’s a song that attacks things like restlessness, boredom, drudgery or shame with the stubbornness of a kamikaze-artist.

Personal Trainer are:

Abel Tuinstra – keys, samples, trombone
Willem Smit – vocals
Kilian Kayser – percussion
Ruben van Weegberg – bass
Kick Kluiving – drums
Franti Maresova – guitar
Otto de Jong – guitar

Please Please You presents
Personal Trainer
Trueman & The Indoor League + The New Solar Drones
Wednesday 2nd November, 7.30pm
Tickets are £8 (+ b/f) in advance (more on the door) and are available from See Tickets.