Like Trains & Taxis brakes in Bloomington

Like Trains & Taxis sped through Bloomington’s The Cinemat at Tuesday.

The three-man, New Jersey-based keyboard trio, consisting of pianist/vocalist Chris Harris, bassist Owen Susman and drummer Mike Del Priore, played alongside local Bloomington band Jip Jop as part of a tour celebrating the release of Like Trains & Taxis’ new EP.

“We wanted to go south by southwest,” Del Priore said.

The band’s next show will be at NX35, billed as a “music conferette,” and will take place in Denton, Texas. from March 12 to 15. Like Trains & Taxis has been playing shows since they left New Jersey. Somewhere along the line, they found The Cinemat.

The Cinemat, which opened its doors in 2002, is a Bloomington-based video rental store that also features a walled-off area that functions as a bar and venue.

However, this isn’t the only unique combination venue that Like Trains & Taxis has visited. In Wilmington, N.C., they played at a combination laundromat-and-venue called the Soapbox Laundro-Lounge; in Richmond, Va., they played at a clothing boutique which also functioned as a venue, and on their way through Syracuse, N.Y., they performed at a waffle and tea shop that also had a stage.

By 8 p.m., the band was already warming up. Susman, a silent movie fan, took time for discourse on silent movies with Del Priore.

“I can’t not have Charlie Chaplin movies around me,” Susman said.

“Not true, on our last tour you didn’t have Charlie Chaplin movies,” said Harris, adjusting the keyboard.

Owen nodded sagely.

“And it took a terrible toll on me.”

A sudden blast of feedback from the adjustment literally blew the glasses off the photographer.

From there on, however, it was gravy.

As the crowd began to filter in, the band opened with a track from their new self-titled EP, titled “Separate Lives.”

Del Priore’s precise drums provided a strong backing for the near-seamless meshing of Harris’ soulful vocals and smooth keyboarding with Susman’s rolling bass. The songs were tightly put together and ran like clockwork.

They also performed a newer, untitled song which featured Harris with the same soulful vocals. However, the calm piano of the first two tracks had been replaced with an electronic organ. The organic bass had been distorted. The track was still precisely machined, and the drums lost no accuracy from the slower preceding tracks.

Like Trains & Taxis was formed in New Brunswick, N.J., when Harris turned his home into an art gallery, Harris said. He convinced Susman to play bass with him, and Del Priore joined the trio after finding an advertisement on craigslist.com.

Tuesday was audience member Megan Hart’s first time hearing Like Trains & Taxis.

“I really like it,” she said. “I have a lot of friends who play at The Cinemat, and I love them and I love their music – but this is a lot different,” Hart said. “It’s a lot more soulful in some kind of way. It has a sound that I like, and familiar with, but I like that about it.”

Matt Margeson, the drummer for Jip Jop, also enjoyed the band.

“I like their sound,” Margeson said. “From a musician’s standpoint, it’s very tight arrangements, and the vocalist is on point ... the drummer is very nice. It’s stainless music. It’s good.”