Since the release of their debut album 925 in 2020, North London’s Sorry have been making a name for themselves in the post-punk scene of Britain and beyond. Beginning as a duo and evolving into a five-piece, their most recent tour followed 2022’s follow-up Anywhere but Here, and the more recent release of singles ‘Waxwing’ and ‘Jetplane’. With a new album hopefully on the horizon, the band brought their signature blend of sulky, sultry indie-rock to Manchester’s Band on the Wall.
Sorry’s enigmatic, engaging lead Asha Lorenz arrived on stage sporting a Mickey Mouse hat, perhaps in reference to the lyrics of ‘Waxwing’, and dived straight into ‘Jive’. The song is yet to be released, but has been circulating online since 2023, and was followed by the band’s latest single ‘Jetplane’. Despite there being less than a month between this song’s release and the band’s Manchester show, its unnerving bassline and Guided By Voices sample were greeted by an already familiar and appreciative audience.
‘Right Round the Clock’, a dynamic, sprawling highlight from the band’s debut album, was clearly made to be played live. The song combines incendiary instrumentation with lyrics that are somehow both upfront and abstract, and as Lorenz sang “I’ll put her in my movie, to make her real” it was noticeable that the audience were completely absorbed in the music. During the remainder of the set, even a single phone raised in the air was a rare sight, and this refreshingly testified to the audience’s attentiveness, as well the band’s own ability to engage and entrance.
‘Key to the City’, a highlight from Anywhere but Here, saw vocal duties swing between Lorenz and her childhood friend Louis O’Byren, and was followed by ‘Candle’, another unreleased track. ‘Cigarette Packet’ then proved a live highlight: as the centrepiece of 2021 EP Twixtustwain, upon its release the song saw the North Londoners delve further into the experimentalism hinted at on 925, embracing electronic influences and a cowbell that reverberates as the song progresses, contributing to a hypnotic melody.
Anywhere but Here’s jangly opener ‘Let the Lights On’ appeared, and saw Lorenz instruct the crowd to “leave the love that you had on the dancefloor”. ‘Echoes’ followed as another glance at the band’s unreleased material, before ‘Screaming in the Rain Again’, an updated, slightly more upbeat version of the Anywhere but Here track ‘Screaming in the Rain’, further enraptured the clearly captivated audience. ‘Willow Tree’ and ‘There’s So Many People That Want to Be Loved’ saw Sorry sustain the set’s run of songs taken from Anywhere but Here, with the latter initially providing a tender moment within the band’s set before reaching its invigorating crescendo.
Unreleased songs ‘Today Might Be the Hit’, ‘Antelope’, ‘Life in this Body’ and ‘Into the Dark’ were performed one after the other, providing a further glimpse at new material hopefully on the horizon. After the sixth unreleased track of the night concluded, the electrifying ‘Waxwing’ appeared before the band departed the stage for the encore. The song is undoubtedly one of the most impressive of Sorry’s discography, playfully interpolating Toni Basil’s ‘Hey Mickey’ and twisting it into something more darkly lustful.
As the band returned, they launched into a cover of DJ Luck and MC Neat’s nineties dance classic ‘A Little Bit of Luck’, attesting to their adaptability and refusal to shy away from defying expectation and bending genre at their command. ‘Ode to Boy’ and ‘Showgirl’ appeared, before blistering standout single ‘Starstruck’ closed the show. The effects of the song’s driving percussion and jagged, angular guitar riffs are multiplied many times over live, making it the obvious choice to end such a dynamic performance.
Sorry’s band members might not have interacted with the crowd much, but they didn’t need to: their music spoke for itself, being given room to breathe and enchant. Throughout the set, every member of the band made use of their own microphone, or in keyboardist Marco Pini’s case, two, allowing the band to recreate the chorus of voices that can be heard on many of their recorded songs. The centrepiece of Sorry is undoubtedly Asha Lorenz and her own off-kilter vocals, which were also allowed to take centre stage live, alongside her enigmatic presence that helps the five-piece enrapture their audience.
Despite the limited production capacity of Band on the Wall, Sorry’s show did not suffer from restriction, being complete with distorted interludes including one interpolating Don McLean’s American Pie. From jangly indie-rock to all-out experimentalism, Sorry’s music is made for small rooms and intimate settings, but also works in larger venues ten times the size, as demonstrated by their support slot on Fontaines D.C.’s UK tour last autumn. With new material evidently on the horizon, it will be interesting to see the progression of a band so remarkable.
