The term post-rock', for me at least, used to have similar connotations to what punk rock meant to those pogoing away in the late-1970's.

It sounded easy to play - elaborate, catchy tunes weren't necessary and you didn't even have to bother singing if you didn't want to.

Bands such as Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Mogwai and Do Make Say Think spawned a multitude of bands willing to go down the same route that one riff played quietly then louder, can make a song.

But more recently it seems, bands have been striving to move away from the more minimalist form of classic albums in that style, such as Mogwai's Come On Die Young, and into an altogether more colourful and technically adaptable territory.

Last week's second BD1 LiVE gig illustrated this quite perfectly.

Although it would be unfair to tarnish each of the night's bands with the same post-rock brush, there was a definite theme.

By the time I walked into St George's Hall, Bradford, openers Laboratory Noise were already drawing ethereal, My Bloody Valentine tinged drones out of their guitars, before an altogether more driving, pounding guitar kicked in, starting the gig in earnest.

They used the advantage of having three guitarists wonderfully.

The mixture of spaced-out effects ridden guitars and more conventional rhythmic playing from band leader Paul McNulty allowed the songs to soar and pierce the audience - partly due to the fantastic sound that the historic hall is capable of producing.

In parts this M62' band (made up of people from Bradford, Leeds and Manchester) really live up to their name, as experimental soundscapes ebb and flow.

Despite the reverb-soaked guitars, dripping with ethereal otherworldliness, this group can certainly write a decent tune.

The same can hardly be said about worriedaboutsatan, but then again, I think that is meant to be the point.

This duo, formerly of Johnny Poindexter, instead prefer to entice the audience into following them into their twisted world of laptops screaming beats and swarming guitars.

The music has a synthetic quality to it, emanating from just two guitars and one laptop.

Performance wise, the experience is a little disturbing as one half of the pair flings himself about the stage, exorcising his demons through his laptop and guitar which at times sound as if they are in quite a bit of pain.

By the end of the set, as the audience seem to be transfixed in a static hypnotised state, the semblance of a pumping tune starts to emerge, in a fashion which harks back to Canadian experimentalists Le Fly Pan Am.

But it's not easy going - and I look on emphatically as a group of older audience members decide this band may not be for them and leave during a rather vulgar quote from the cult British film, Dead Man's Shoes.

After a brief interval spent queuing up at the incredibly busy upstairs bar, I return to witness the more subtle, quietly disturbing and eventually obscenely destructive overtures of Halifax-based Falconetti.

Here we have what at first seemed to be "post-rock" in the more traditional sense.

The slow-burning tunes actually made you feel as if you were being lulled into a false sense of security, yet the way the songs built up was quite unlike what anyone else is doing.

Before you knew it layer upon layer of noise had encompassed the rapidly-filling hall, adding an eerie soundtrack to the Victorian decor.

Despite what seemed to be quite a minimalist style, the technical competency of these musicians was perfectly clear.

The ice-blue backdrop added perfectly to the sparse, barren landscape the band, at times, inhabit.

Throughout the set I found myself waiting for something to happen, before realising it was happening, right there in front of us all.

The constant throbbing feeling emanating from the guitars throughout each song really let the trumpet shine through the discordant wall of sound.

And as quickly as they started their set, they ended, and left the stage having not said a word to, or looked at, the audience.

This just left tonight's headliners - iLiKeTRaiNS.

Uniformly dressed in white shirts with black ties, trousers and armbands, there is a rush to the front of the stage as they walk out to the sounds of a thunderous church organ.

These five young men from Leeds have garnered a reputation for themselves over the past 12 months and tonight's performance was the perfect platform for them to show exactly what they could do if they make it into the big league.

The almost slight frame of Dave Martin in no way prepares you for the gothic voice that comes out of it, while the tribal drumming of the first song set the over-bearing tone of the rest of the set.

Compositions such as A Rook House For Bobby and Terra Nova have already become mini-classics and yet again, tonight's setting allowed the epic quality of these songs to come to the fore.

Coming across like Nick Cave fronting a much darker Explosions In The Sky, iLiKeTRaiNS take this sub-genre of rock to a different place.

Heart-wrenching tunes do little to stifle the smiles on the faces of many near the front of the crowd - even when Mr Martin lets loose in the majestically morbid stakes with repeating the line, "We all fall down".

The tunes lodge in your head, setting up camp before resurfacing, dragging memories of teenage angst with them.

Although they can obtain spine-tingling' with aplomb, the journey of the songs often leads to pure despair, but at least there is some nice scenery on the way.

The ending of the set is monstrous, crashing down further and further, until unfortunately, they refer to what seems to be an obligatory way of ending sets nowadays - kneeling on the floor playing with delay pedals.

But this was nowhere near enough to tarnish what was another successful night for those boys from Mono and Granadaland who put in the time, energy and effort to bring such fantastic music to a fantastic venue.

Perhaps everything is not so gloomy after all.