Every time I’m in the Anson Rooms I can’t help but think it
looks like a school hall. When we first arrived, there wasn’t a
great deal of people about so we were able to stand right at the barrier.
When Electric City took to the stage they were a mingle of skinny jeans,
long fringes and rugged manliness. They had a kind of self-assured confidence
about them as they launched into their first song. Their sound was a smooth
mix of indie with electro tones and punchy choruses. Apart from the front
man, Andy J. Taylor, there was minimal movement from the band who merely
sashayed their hips in time with the music. But this just seemed to fit
with their cool, edgy, indie sound. When I had read that in the past they
had supported acts such as We Are Scientists and The Futureheads I expected
big things. And I wasn’t disappointed.
Electric City have had one single out to date entitled ‘Sleeping
with the Enemy’. When they performed the song it was saturated with
digital melodies and raspy vocals. As the song reached the chorus, Taylor’s
voice sounded like pure, well, filth and I loved it. One of my favourite
songs of the night had to be their self-titled song ‘Electric City’.
The band has a trademark of electro infused, placid verses which build
to an exciting climax and it was definitely present in this song, especially
with the chants of ‘Electric City, Electric City!’ during
the bridge. As they play, bassist, Jonny Bullit, looks like he’s
in some kind of music trance and his gaze never falters. Lead vocalist
and guitarist, Taylor, meanwhile looks like he’s constantly having
a good time. The crowd reaction is not overtly receptive but the regular
calls of recognition between songs seemed to show some form of appreciation.
Overall, the band’s rock-and-roll is effortlessly cool, funk-tastic
and a pleasure to listen to. I tried all night to think of a band to compare
Electric City to, but couldn’t. To me, they had their own crafted
sound, which is always a positive thing.
Waiting for Orson to come on, I couldn’t help but think I’d
never really been a huge fan of the band, but I remained open-minded.
‘Goldfinger’ by Shirley Bassey preceded their entrance to
the stage which helped to hype up the crowd. Then each member of the band
took to the stage in turn and I have to say, I have never seen such an
eclectic mix of people in one band before. Orson look as if they’d
been part of one of America’s talent shows that throw middle-aged
members of the public together. Apart from the lead man, Jason Pebworth,
we had a shy and reserved guitar player going by the name of George Astasio,
who never spoke and barely moved, guitarist and vocalist, Kevin Roentgen,
who was dinky and heavily tattooed and a guitarist who looked like he
aspired to be an older member of Fall Out Boy. Then we had the drummer,
who looked like the spitting image of Borat. But despite these observations,
the band just seemed to “fit” together. The Fall Out Boy-esque
bassist exuded a huge amount of energy which actually had my attention
for most of the set mainly due to the lack of movement any of the other
members of the band displayed. Then of course, the front man, who was
definitely the band’s glue. Apart from the fact I never glimpsed
his eyes from his low-pulled trilby hat, he had a presence about him,
and even for the songs I wasn’t a fan of, his voice never had an
absence of power.
Now I’m not going to lie, before I saw Orson perform, I hadn’t
heard any other songs apart from the singles they have released including
‘Bright Idea’, ‘Happiness’, ‘Already Over’
and their most recent release ‘Ain’t No Party’. And
of course, the one that absolutely everyone knows and loved ‘No
Tomorrow’. Apart from ‘Bright Idea’, I was a fan of
all of their singles and each of them transcended really well to a live
performance. ‘Happiness’ is a song that has sexy riffs in
each verse and a soaring build to the call of ‘Happiness’
in the chorus. It was just that, a happy, feel-good song which seemed
to have the whole crowd smiling. One of my favourites of the night had
to be ‘Already Over’, a tender love-song which conveys a love
which has come to an end. This is when Pebworth’s voice is at its
most beautiful as he sings the heartfelt chorus. Both ‘Ain’t
No Party’ and ‘No Tomorrow’ were the obvious party starters
of the band’s set and they got the crowd bopping around manically
and definitely had the best reception of the night. Orson have an ability
to produce catchy, melodic pop-based songs which are usually a crowd-pleaser,
regardless of whether it’s your music of choice. Along with their
singles, Orson showcased a few songs from their newest album ‘Culture
Vultures’ including the tracks ‘Broken Watch’ and ‘Gorgeous’,
but quite frankly, these songs soared right over my head. They just didn’t
seem to have that “wow” factor that tracks from their debut
album had. Pleasant, and easy-listening, but just nothing special that
would make me go back for more.
One of my favourite moments of watching Orson had to be when they dropped
the pace during the first song of their encore when they performed ‘Look
Around’ from their first album, ‘Bright Idea’. The stage
consisted of Pebworth on vocals and the Kevin Roentgen on an acoustic
guitar and the song was so gentle and soft that it had me entranced. So
as the band closed the evening with ‘No Tomorrow’, I was actually
mildly impressed. I had a preconception that Orson could only churn out
pop songs which were nothing more than okay, but after seeing them perform,
the effort they put into every song and the contrast of sugar-sweet love
songs and up-beat pop classics definitely made up for those tracks that
I had forgotten about by the next day.
Review By Fiona |
