LIVE: The Orielles @ The Victoria, Dalston, 07.09.16

When you’ve been following a band for a while, it’s always a great experience to see how far they’ve come since you first set ears on them. This is the case for Leeds-based The Orielles; having first captured our attention with their sparkling single ‘Space Doubt’ at the beginning of last year, we named them as ‘Ones To Watch’ in 2016 – a prediction which, if I say so myself, was pretty spot on. They’ve spent the year headlining gigs across the country, as well as venturing across the pond to Canada, releasing a new EP and now are supporting exuberant Spanish garage-rockers The Parrots on some of their UK dates.

Tonight at The Victoria will be the third time I’ve been lucky enough to catch The Orielles live, the second time at this venue. And, despite the lack of beer available (something wrong with pumps), they don’t disappoint.

Esme, Sidonie and Henry open the night – the only English band alongside raucous headliners The Parrots and fellow Spaniards Los Nastys. Despite their endearing modesty, and apparent surprise at the crowd being so big so early on (probably the busiest I’ve seen a venue for an opening act for a long time), The Orielles soon let their youthful zest take over, wowing the large audience with their unique, effervescent brand of surf-pop.

Oozing jangly melodies, twinkling harmonies and whirring, reverb-strewn riffs, tracks such as ‘Space Doubt’ and ‘Joey Says We Got It’ get The Victoria bopping along with their sunny energy; newer tracks ‘Krewcut’ and ‘Jobin’ are equally engrossing as the cool, calm aura of sisters Esme and Sid is juxtaposed with the whirring, youthful charisma of guitarist Henry. It’s wonderful to see a band vibing off the audience to such an extent, the sheer energy and joy in the room heightened by some buoyant members of The Parrots dancing at the front.

At the risk of sounding like a ‘proud mum’, it really is great to see a band blossom into a more confident, more together collective. Whilst I’ve been a fan since I first heard The Orielles, they do just keep improving. To see how they’ve developed is really quite inspiring; and it’s not just the sheer quality of their sound that has improved, their developed stage presence and hypnotic energy is also utterly impressive. As the sound of Esme’s honey-sweet vocals swirling alongside splendid, scuzzy riffs and perfect, racing beats fills The Victoria, it’s clear just how far The Orielles have come.

Although I was very pleased to have stuck around for the fantastic, riotous set delivered by The Parrots later on (most crowd-surfing I’ve seen for about a decade!), The Orielles were still my highlight of the night. A band truly unique and positively refreshing in their own perfected, dreamy sound who just keep getting better and better.

The Orielles are also set to be curating their own weekend in Manchester on 25 and 26 November. The weekend will consist of headline sets from The Orielles, as well as a lineup featuring some of their favourite new acts including ZuZu, Parly Hardly, The Roasts, Fentonville Street Band and Corey Bowen.

Mari Lane
@marimindles