Live: The Orwells

Sunday 5th March at Gorilla

7.5/10

Having performed the night before in Bristol, Chicago band The Orwells brought their garage rock to Manchester. This time, they came with a set of songs from their new album Terrible Human Beings.

The deranged (as NME quite correctly puts it) Dead Pretties supported the band, setting the most awkward atmosphere. The lead singer shouted at the people in the back — one would have thought he’d come off the stage and drag you to the first rows — to come closer. Then, 30 minutes of mosh pits later, they left the stage the way a rebellious, 21st-century-society-hater band is expected to do — flying drumstick included.

When The Orwells finally made their entrance into the fairly crowded venue, guitarist Dominic Corso introduced the band to the crowd: “We are The Orwells from the United States, and are now in the United Kingdom”. ‘Black Francis’, from the band’s new album was the first song to be played. However, it was ‘Dirty Sheets’, one of their oldest songs, that made most of the crowd go mad and sing the lyrics as if they were the ones asking the woman in the song to “be their saviour”. It was surprising to see that the crowd recognized and sang new songs such as ‘Hippie Soldier’ from beginning to end, or at least in the case of those less acquainted with the song, the catchy back vocals “sha la la la”.

Mario Cuomo, smartly dressed for the occasion with a golden-sequined jacket, is a phenomenon that must be analyzed on its own. His facial expressions varied from an everlasting smile to completely inexpressive at times. He danced around, dove into the crowd, and livened up the gig with his quirky behavior. The rest of the band, however, did not interact much with the crowd, other than one moment when Matt O’Keefe (guitar) started joking around and pretended to sing the first lines of ‘Wonderwall’.

Overall it was a nice gig in a welcoming venue, although it did feel like the band was unexcited about the show, which is always deflating. For example, it only lasted an hour, and when the band left the stage the stage lights were still on for about five minutes. The crowd kept asking for more songs thinking that the band had planned an encore, however soon enough the bright lights of the venue were turned on and the people kicked out. Not a good idea to do to such an excited crowd.