Kevin Hunter - guitar, vocals; Kurt Herr - guitars, vocals; Anders Rundblad - bass, vocals; Frederico Gil-Sola - drums
Wire Train was made up of four students who attended San Francisco State University together in the early 1980s. In 1983, guitarists Kevin Hunter and Kurt Herr, along with drummer Frederico Gil-Sola and bassist Anders Rundblad, emerged as the Renegades. Unable to keep the name, they adopted the moniker Wire Train and within a few months had a deal on the Bay Area based 415 Records.
415 had already seen considerable success with bands such as Romero Void and Translator. Just as Wire Train was inking its deal with 415, the popular indie label secured a national distribution deal through Sony's Columbia Records.
The band, which had only been together less than a year when this show was recorded for the King Biscuit Flower Hour, already had a solid roster of material, which placed them somewhere between the psychedelic sounds of late-1960s San Francisco and the more modern British new wave vibe.
The band opens this six-song set with "I'll Do You," and features mostly material from their debut album, In Chamber. "100 Days (Without Words)" features a landscape of sonic dynamics, ranging from soft guitar harmonics to ranging full-on power chord changes. In retrospect, the sound is not unlike that of early U2. "Slow Down" features great guitar interplay from Hunter and Herr. They slow things down for "Like" before blasting off into "Everything's Turning Up Down Again," another fast-paced rocker. Wire Train closes the show, with "Chamber Of Hellos," an up-tempo song that garnered considerable airplay when it was released. Even though the song is upbeat, it actually tells the tale of a gruesome murder.
Wire Train would go though a series of personnel changes after the first album, they would make one more album on 415, before moving to MCA for two more discs. By the time they split up in 1994, only Hunter and Rundblad remained from this lineup. What many have said is their best song, "Snug," was never released on record.