“It’s great to be playing in the same venue we played three years ago. Our career is sky rocketing,” joked frontman Mario Cuomo shortly before his band launched into the frantic ‘Dirty Sheets’. Friday night gigs always carry an extra allure with them and the hysterical nature of Orwells shows lends them to that carefree mentality. This was proven as soon as the first chord was struck on opening track ‘Black Francis’, with the young crowd instantly singing back the vocals and forming mosh pits to the recent single.
Still not legally allowed to consume alcohol in their home country and already three albums down, The Orwells’ brand of indie is suited to a gig environment, with the enigmatic Cuomo the perfect stimulus for the booze-soaked debauchery taking place in front of him. Whilst some critics believe their garage rock sound is over polished on record, the live show gives the five-piece an opportunity to present the recordings in a context which feels more natural.
Dressed in a baseball jacket, Cuomo strikes the perfect balance between assertive and deranged, throwing around his golden locks in time with the beat and sporadically eyeballing the eager audience with his menacing stare. Whether this is all part of the act is another question, but it’s still entertaining regardless. It also adds to the reputation of the Chicago band being rowdy, suburban adolescents. This indeed came to a head near the end of the show with the singer getting into an altercation with a security guard in which he disappeared for half a song. The visibility in the venue stopped most of the audience witnessing what exactly happened, but I can’t imagine a robust Sussex bouncer took too kindly to a boisterous, long-haired American teenager bashing into him repeatedly.
Despite missing out fan favourites ‘The Righteous One’ and ‘Other Voices’, the set felt substantial, with Terrible Human Beings taking the lion’s share of the spoils. The self-described “mutilated pop songs” on the new record do indeed have a melodic core buried away within their rough frameworks. This is a facet ‘They Put A Body In The Bayou’ and ‘Hippie Soldier’ exemplify when played live. But for all their outlandish shenanigans, The Orwells write good pop songs and are accomplished musicians who have a knack of bringing out each rumbling guitar bend, catchy riff or groovy pulsation onto a superior level when performed live. Whether it be ‘Buddy’, ‘Southern Comfort’, or ‘Who Needs You’, the back catalogue is sprinkled with catchy, instantaneous indie-rock normally reserved for song writing veterans.
Taking to the stage at the early start time of 7.30, support band Dead Pretties were in no way effected by the relative calmness and sobriety of the prompt audience. Baring all the hallmarks of all your classic vociferous frontmen, Jacob Salter and his band may well be at the vanguard of a new garage rock movement that possesses mainstream appeal. “I’m living outside my mind,” cried the singer in what is the band’s only release to date and set highlight ‘Social Experiment’. He wasn’t lying as he bounced around the stage with an aggressive and sinister streak. It will be interesting to see if this band can bottle up this emotion and raw energy into their debut LP.
The undoubted highlight of the entire night came in the form of The Orwells final track and recent album closer ‘Double Feature’. Easily their most experimental and groove-oriented recording to date, it hints at the band’s future direction and could be considered a defining moment. Clocking in at close to ten minutes, it is the first ever Orwells song that has been given space to expand, with Cuomo exiting the stage for the final five minutes in order to let his four band mates jam the slow instrumental build which features spikey guitar lines, pounding bass, and raucous howls before erupting into a climactic wall of noise.
Paul Hill
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