Are these kids really the same age than… Justin Bieber? Ha! it is irresistibly funny when you think about it. Seeing the black X on their hands, the members of the Orwells were underage at the Echo, but this didn’t prevent the five of them to rock out the place as if they had been punk rock veterans.
With their bouncy youth-hymns and their shouted vocals, they filled up the room with a trashy-careless attitude and some sunny arrangements. Especially, their blond-hair frontman and singer, Mario Cuomo, was some sight: Moving all over the place, his drunken dance had probably found some inspiration in someone like Iggy Pop,… and the whole ensemble has possibly some Stooges-area raw power.
The guy was totally restless, he was moving in all directions, rolling his back on the floor, whipping the air with his blond mane, haranguing the crowd at any moment, jumping on the amp and almost falling down in his nothing-can-stop-me enthusiasm.
‘Come closer to the stage, I want to see all your pretty faces’ he boldly said at the beginning of the show, and the rest was a mad house party, with a loud energy and catchy-foot-tapping rhythms tainted of retro surf riffs. The punk spirit was alive and well, and beside that, another type of songs, far less bouncy but going into some mad psychedelia – almost Brian Jonestown Massacre psychedelia – during which Cuomo’s chimp-like antics were more rowdy-tipsy than ever.
The Chicago-based band will release their LP ‘Remember When’ on August 7 via Autumn Tone, but it will already be their third album! God, these school kids must have started recording when they were still wearing diapers!… And last night, they wanted to have fun above everything, in a totally sloppy way and with songs like ‘Mallrats (la la la)’ or ‘Who Needs you’ and their frenetic shouted vocals, I thought they could be the hyperactive children of Fidlar, if such a thing is possible,… I mean at least they should do a collaboration with the LA band,… or trash Bieber’s next show at the Staples center?