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Photo Credit: Daniel Topete<\/i><\/p>\n
The crowd funneling into the Middle East Saturday night wasn\u2019t just there to hear the dirty, anthemic rock \u2018n\u2019 roll tunes of some Chicago rockers\u2014they were there to witness a rock \u2018n\u2019 roll resurrection. They came sporting denim jackets and combat boots, ready to sacrifice their voices, bodies, and probably their souls. The stage served as an altar for the night\u2019s proceedings, and the saviors were none other than The Orwells.<\/p>\n
Before The Orwells took the stage, fellow Chicago natives The Symposium warmed up the crowd with their sweet but garage-y psych pop. Sharp guitar riffs cut through humming bass lines and spacey synths as Charlie Gammel\u2019s chilled-out vocals crooned. The result was an undeniably catchy set. Gammel was insistent that he was feeling Boston\u2019s good vibes, and why wouldn\u2019t he, when the crowd was enthusiastically bouncing around to The Symposium\u2019s songs? Without a doubt, Boston wanted the band back here soon.<\/p>\n
Until then, they had The Orwells to feed their craving for top quality music. Matt O\u2019Keefe (guitar), Henry Brinner (drums), Grant Brinner (bass), and Dominic Corso (guitar) strolled onto the stage of the Middle East to the crowd\u2019s unrestrained delight. However, there was a tense excitement that lingered. Someone was missing.<\/p>\n
High-pitched voices shrieking, \u201cMARIO!\u201d emanated through the venue as the elusive frontman became visible at the side of the stage. Perhaps it was his long, unruly, blonde locks that gave him away, or his purple and yellow zebra-print Minnesota Vikings leggings. But what really drew the gazes was his effortlessly cool and careless attitude that was showcased as the band launched into \u201cThey Put a Body in the Bayou,\u201d a song off their new album\u00a0Terrible Human Beings<\/i>\u00a0due out on Feb. 17.<\/p>\n
The wailing guitar line of the intro began, and Mario Cuomo was already sauntering back and forth across the stage, microphone in hand. His onstage antics are part of \u201cThe Orwells experience,\u201d but he was only warming up.<\/p>\n
\u201cDirty Sheets,\u201d a favorite off their previous album,\u00a0Disgraceland<\/i>, brought the set to a whole new level, even though the band was only two songs in. Everyone knew the words by heart as they screamed back \u201cWhat\u2019s your name and what\u2019s your story \/ Head is heavy \/ I\u2019m still horny.\u201d Meanwhile, Cuomo could be found anywhere but the stage\u2014he was lounging atop the shoulders of the densely packed crowd, or within inches of fans\u2019 faces, shrouding them with his tangled (and increasingly sweaty) head of hair.<\/p>\n
Corso narrated the night by presenting the crowd with new tunes like \u201cBuddy,\u201d as well as old classics like \u201cThe Righteous One,\u201d \u201cIn My Bed,\u201d \u201cSouthern Comfort,\u201d and \u201cMallrats (La La La).\u201d When it came time to play \u201cGotta Get Down,\u201d another favorite from\u00a0Disgraceland<\/i>, O\u2019Keefe and Corso teased the crowd by playing only half of the iconic intro before finally launching into it fully, releasing the excited tension they had built. Cuomo complimented the band\u2019s playing with warning screams of, \u201cMy daddy\u2019s got a 12 gauge \/ I hope I don\u2019t find it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The set was unrestrained chaos, but the results couldn\u2019t have been better. The crowd surged as a singular, sweaty mass during the explosive encore composed of \u201cWho Needs You\u201d and \u201cHead.\u201d Cuomo seemed to hurtle headlong into uncontrolled insanity as he became possessed by the rock \u2018n\u2019 roll spirit itself. The band, whose musicianship is nothing short of incredible, echoed this passion, but with flawless execution instead of unbridled convulsions and screams. And with that, The Orwells left the stage and consequently left the crowd in a stunned bliss.<\/p>\n
The Orwells never fail in producing a near religious experience during their shows. The band\u2019s admiring respect and complete embodiment of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll in its most fundamental, dirty, raunchy form causes them to put on shows unlike those of any other rock band today. They shamelessly have the attitude of the biggest rock \u2018n\u2019 roll band in America. In other words, they\u2019re good at what they do, and they aren\u2019t shy about showing it. Cuomo\u2019s onstage persona could be seen as vulgar and gimmicky, but in reality he\u2019s doing what the most infamous frontmen of the genre have been doing for years\u2014he pushes the envelope and frankly doesn\u2019t care how people feel about it. When that attitude is melded with honest songwriting and immensely talented musicians, you\u2019re destined to end up with one of the greatest rock bands of the era. And after witnessing the inspiring chaos of their shows, you know The Orwells are undoubtedly one of those bands.<\/p>\n
-Olivia Gehrke<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Photo Credit: Daniel Topete The crowd funneling into the Middle East Saturday night wasn\u2019t just there to hear the dirty, anthemic rock \u2018n\u2019 roll tunes of some Chicago rockers\u2014they were there to witness a rock \u2018n\u2019 roll resurrection. They came sporting denim jackets and combat boots, ready to sacrifice their voices, bodies, and probably their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1525],"tags":[33,26,31,44,25],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":301,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299\/revisions\/301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}