Los Angeles – Every time Elmhurst, IL-based garage rock band The Orwells take the stage, they leave a trail of dropped jaws and sweat-soaked shirts. And it this point, those jaws are finally not hanging due to the band members’ eye-popping youthfulness. In a move typically reserved for savant-level athletes or academics, the five band members graduated early from high school to dedicate themselves to professional musicianship. A bills-paying full time music gig is something hundreds of thousands of artists strive for, and these Chicagoland teenagers achieved that milestone before they even reached voting age, and really, before they even had bills to pay!

So while most music fans that have followed The Orwells are used to thinking of them as that kinda-cute/kinda-spastic/kinda-insane posse of barely post-pubescent boys, that sentiment simply does not hold much truth anymore. After several years, these guys are now full-fledged adults – they could even drink the beer inside the venue they were playing! And drink they did, guzzling cans of Pabst in between songs. Midway through their set, singer Mario Cuomo got a beer via special delivery from an audience member who was sprinting past before diving headlong into the thick, bouncing pit.

Cuomo, Dominic Corso, Grant and Henry Brinner, and Matt O’Keefe have now released a pair of well-received garage punk albums under The Orwells moniker, 2012’s Remember When and 2014’s Disgraceland. Working on their third album while supporting those two releases, they headed to The Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles’ Westlake District for a jam-packed (but free!) concert put on by the folks at Converse Rubber Tracks. Just another incredible asset to the Los Angeles music scene, Rubber Tracks hosts free shows at The Echoplex and (now) The Teragram Ballroom every few months – previous events included Deafheaven, Wild Nothing and Vic Mensa.

Let’s get back to The Orwells. Like every one of their shows, Tuesday night’s performance left the crowd begging for more of their catchy and straightforward take on retro garage revival. The band operates in a sweet spot: while the band’s songs have their fair share of grit and edginess, they do not push the envelope of experimentation or do much to overly challenge the listener. With The Orwells, what you see is what you get. And what you get is a blur of Cuomo’s shock-blonde, shaggy, shoulder-length hair, straightforward mile-a-minute riffing with the occasional rip of a solo thrown in, and pogo-inducing pop punk tempos. Cuomo is really the cherry on the top of this punk rock sundae, because as the other four members of the band steadily hold down the groove, he flails around the stage like a bastardized hybrid of Iggy Pop and Mick Jagger.

The Orwells played songs from across their first two full lengths, including hits from their debut like “Mall Rats (La La La)”, “Halloween All Year” and “In My Bed”. The band mixed up the set with an aggressive, pop-punk version of The Foundations’ “Build Me Up Buttercup”. Despite playing a couple tracks off of their major label debut, Disgraceland, they tended to make up the least memorable moments in the set. The good news for fans of The Orwells is that the band played several songs from their forthcoming third LP, and they were all very strong numbers.

The Orwells have wrapped up their tour and are now focused on releasing their third album. However, the band does play many one-off shows so keep an eye on their website for more tour announcements.

Photo Credit: Matt Matasci

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Matt Matasci

Perhaps it was years of listening to the eclectic and eccentric programming of KPIG-FM with his dad while growing up on the Central Coast of California, but Matt Matasci has always rebuffed mainstream music while seeking unique and under-the-radar artists.Like so many other Californian teenagers in the 90s and 00s, he first started exploring the alternative music world through Fat Wreck Chords skate-punk.This simplistic preference eventually matured into a more diverse range of tastes - from the spastic SST punk of Minutemen to the somber folk-tales of Damien Jurado, and even pulverizing hardcore from bands like Converge.He graduated from California Lutheran University with a BA in journalism.Matt enjoys spending his free time getting angry at the Carolina Panthers, digging through the dollar bin at Amoeba, and taking his baby daughter to see the Allah-Lahs at the Santa Monica Pier.

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