The Orielles Late night with Jimmy Fallow in Manchester review

Image: Priti Shikotra

This weekend event has a unique flavour. The concept is simple: two headline performances from The Orielles, two different supporting line ups. Promoters Interior strive to promote gigs that offer something different and this delivers – despite having all of the strangest band names you'll ever have heard in one place on one bill. 

In charge of proceedings are The Orielles, they are the figureheads of an emerging scene of bands who aren’t old enough to be at their own gigs yet, but are making a huge impact in Manchester and a little further afield.

The Orielles along with The Showers and The Roasts are, despite their fledgling years, very accomplished live bands with an impressive back catalogue. This has been shown by their progression over the past couple of years and why The Orielles have been given the opportunity to put together two days of their favourite music. 

The Roasts opened up the Friday evening, and Sam Frost (aka Itsnatevendahk) of The Showers opened up the Saturday. They both have a devoted following who bring an extreme energy to live shows and this was shown by Fallow Café beginning to fill up well before The Roasts appeared on stage. Although not yet the finished article, with each performance they seem to grow in stature and figure out what they are doing.  

Continuing the questionable band names theme of the weekend are Party Hardly. The grungy surf pop outfit from Leeds are welcomed to Fallowfield for their first Manchester appearance. Their youthful sound is one that focuses on the smart guitar licks of band founder and frontman Tom Barr.

Their penchant for a catchy love ballad is evident and has seen them sign with Art is Hard and play alongside Trudy and The Romance, INHEAVEN and TRASH since their formation last year. 'Friendly Feeling' is the latest single and set closer, it sees frontman Bland put aside his guitar and fight his way back and forth between the back of the room and the stage. 

Saturday definitely was the big one. The excitement around the two guests was evident. Fentonville Street Band brought a soulful, jazzy take to sun-gazey psychedelia, a sort of Daniel Merriweather (Yes, from that Mark Ronson Smiths cover) meets King Gizzard, which sounds odd but it works.

The Sheffield four-piece have recently released an EP on Delicious Clam Records back in their home town and tracks 'Clouds', 'Shades' and 'Higher Power' all feature in the short set. Frontman Jack Athey brings a soulful flare to an extremely phase heavy sound. They focus on the jazzy aspects of psychedelia and it gives them a strong pop based sensibility.  

The loudest whispers in the crowd are for Her’s. A great deal of excitement has been made of this two-piece since the release of 'Dorothy' and 'What Once Was' over the summer. They have followed it up with latest single 'Marcel' and it has been featured by every publication of note on their ones-to-watch list for 2017.

They will also be heading out to Texas in the New Year to make an appearance at SXSW. Stephen Fitzgerald and Audun Laading have a chemistry on stage that is rare, bouncing off each other between and during songs.

Laading challenges the stereotypes of a bass player, it is frantic but the energy is infectious. His bass playing even causing Fitzpatrick to take a seat and watch his band mate with eyes fixated on his frenzied hands, mouthing “WOW”. Vocals from Fitzgerald are faultless, the effortless range of his baritone voice is mesmerising. The three releases lead an arms in the air sing-a-long. Her’s very nearly stole the show. 

Each act playing over the two nights had a great deal of excitement around them. The Orielles have become inescapable around Manchester, despite being from Halifax. Heavenly Records have just grabbed them for their roster to sit alongside King Giz, Hooton Tennis Club, The Wytches and TOY – not bad company at all. Especially at 17. 

The three-piece have been together for four years, crafting a sound that matches up to anything already on Heavenly Records. On record they are a bundle of sun-soaked energy bounding from riff to riff but live they breathe further life into their music. Guitarist Henry leads each track, hunched over his guitar, his neck contorting like a guitar playing Cirque du Soleil member.

They race through the songs on both nights, not once stopping for breath – only for a sip of beer. They give outings to 'Space Doubt', 'Joey', '48%' and EP lead track 'Jobin', each of them short and to the point. Their sound is brazen and, like the band, inescapable and catchy.

Closing track 'Sugar' sees them step away from their three minute, short, sharp bursts of energy though the Nile Rodgers disco infused guitar licks grow and grow into a wall of noise. The raucous nature of the live show is tailor made for small venues like Fallow Café but I doubt they will be playing venues of this size for much longer. 

Like this? Check out Independent Venue Week announce plans for 2017 and Tim Burgess show