By Carron Stacey

WHEN?: 5/12/20

WHERE?: Livestream from The Trades Club, Hebden Bridge 

Well, there are seated gigs. And there are seated gigs. 

• Read on for reasons including A Humdrum Mum’s thoughts about her 1st livestream lockdown gig

I’m not a fan of seated gigs. When we went to see Adam Ant, not for the first time, a few years back, it was only because it was the Kings of the Wild Frontier album gig that got me through it. I stood up, closed my eyes and was transported back to being 10 years old listening to my first proper, and still one of the best ever, albums in full.

I digress. This was our first livestream gig during a lockdown period. I’d danced along to Sophie Ellis Bextor’s kitchen disco every Friday during the first lockdown period, and I’d even watched Mark Morriss from The Bluetones do an acoustic gig. But this was the first paid-for gig. It was an early Christmas present for Mr Humdrum; I’d bought him tickets to see them live in March so this kind of bookends our year in music.  

Difference to a normal gig #1: Five minutes before they were due on stage, we were frantically vacuuming under a kitchen unit as we’d found some glass from a party from a bygone era and we were worried our lockdown-purchase pup would hurt herself when we locked her in the kitchen to view our gig.  

#2: Reclined in our armchairs, champagne from our fridge, snack nuts. What more could you ask for? A pint of snakebite and Scampi Fries? 

#3: You’re told what to view by the camera. I like to study the drummer usually, but thankfully the camera was pretty generalistic in this livestream, with a frontal view most of the time.   

#4: You miss the crowd atmosphere BUT you don’t have to put up with everyone else talking. Of course it’s OK for you to discuss the playlist for an upcoming party; no issue there  

#5: My singing is actually heard by another human. And a canine.  

#6: It’s the easiest way to review a gig. I’m neither pulling out a notebook and looking like a right knob, nor using notes on my phone, again looking like a right knob.  

#7: We didn’t need to clap. I did “woo hoo” at the end of Bobby’s Second World however.  

#8: This is appointment TV. Not a lot of that around at the moment.  

So I’ve ranted on about the differences between a physical and virtual gig, but what of the actual gig itself? I won’t spend ages writing about how amazing The Orielles are live. If you want to read that, click here to read my review of our first gig at The Chalk, Brighton in March earlier this year. TLDR: amazing live, think psychedelic Orange Juice.  

Tonight, they played a selection of “bangers and oldies” as Henry Carlyle Wade, guitarist, put it. The stand-out tracks for me: Bobbi’s Second World, the obscure story lyrics about feline dual lifestyles, sung by Esmé Dee Hand-Halford, on bass and vocals, make the song for me, along with the stops/starts; Disco Volador, whose intro and build-up are amazing tonight, stops/starts divine along with jangly guitar and famous cowbell; and Sugar Tastes Like Salt, which blew our minds away at the last gig, and whose lyric “isolation, room for creation” perhaps sums up lockdown for some.  

Surely those lyrics ring true for the group itself: released for pre-order today is Disco Volador’s reinvention as La Vita Ollistica (Love Record Stores Edition). The band say they’d always shared an interest in writing a filmscore and used their lockdown period to create the score for the imaginary film of the same name. Mr Humdrum has, of course, pre-ordered it today, from our local food and record purveyor, Pie and Vinyl, Southsea, for its release in March 2021.  

The Orielles’s second album Disco Volador was voted #6 in Love Record Stores’s albums of 2020. However, it ranks higher on Mr Humdrum’s annual top 11 best albums for Pie and Vinyl’s staff and customers’ albums of the year list.  

This livestream gig was without a doubt a fantastic experience with superb sound quality and picture, but the Humdrums can’t wait to get out gigging and reviewing again!

• Picture via Facebook courtesy The Orielles Tickets Read more from Carron at her blog A Humdrum Mum.
• Have you seen any of these shows? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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