Live Review

The Orbitsuns – King Tut’s, Glasgow

• 5th Jul 2011

What better way is there to spend the evening of 4 July than rocking out with a good American band? The Orbitsuns brought their raucous outlaw country sounds to Glasgow all the way from Detroit, Michigan, last night and a good time was had by all.

Local band Bright Young Nights were first on stage. Their electro-pop sound was fairly basic although some fine bass lines gave it a kick. The lead singer has a strong voice but tends to drone a little and I would have liked to hear more from the guitarist. The penultimate track, Baby You’re A Dreamer, showed more finesse than most and was their best song for me.

Breakglass_Emergency turned the temperature up nicely with a fine set of blues tinged rock music. The power trio have a large sound with pounding drums, fierce bass and cutting guitar, and they showed they can deliver both a classic rock sound and slower blues numbers too. The cover of Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door was beautifully delivered and the closing Symptomatic showed their rocking side, featuring the best guitar solo of a good performance.

The Orbitsuns are in the middle of a UK tour to promote their soon to be self released fourth album, Give The Orbitsuns What They Want, although only one track from it featured in a short but extremely lively set.

The band describes its sound on its website by saying “This is country, folks, but not as you know it.” And yes, there is a basic country sound detectable in the twang of Vin Dombroski’s vocals. The sweet tones of Larry Labeck’s pedal steel are in there too.

But the rhythm section of Jimmy Paluzzi behind the drums and Bob Hecker on bass set a beat that wouldn’t be out of place in a heavy rock band and the searing lead guitar work of Jackson Smith gives a real edge to the music.

The subject matter of The Orbitsun’s songs takes them far from traditional country territory too. From the moment Dombroski introduced the opening track, Shittier Day Than Me, it was clear what the outlaw part of outlaw country means.

This was followed by another track from the band’s debut album, the brilliantly titled Tornado In My Pants. The song was apparently written in Scotland and was sung with gusto – and without a single shred of irony. These good ol’ boys are not satirising country music, just putting their own unique slant onto it.

The set continued in the same fashion, with a series of hard rocking tracks featuring powerful vocals, excellent guitar solos and just enough pedal steel to take the edge off. Dombroski worked the fired up crowd in fine fashion; leading sing-alongs during both .. And The Horse You Rode In On and Haul Ass.

In closing, Drunk In The Pews from the new album, was a standout. Telling yet another lurid tale in vivid fashion, this is a real rocking track that left the audience with a taste of what is to come. One final solo and then the music rose for a finale that left the crowd wanting more. But despite calls for an encore that was the end of the set.

Siamese Ghost from Paisley had the difficult task of playing after the headliners. They have a decent two guitar rock sound and had brought plenty of friends and family for support. King Of Thorns was their best song, featuring a decent melody and a big chorus. It was an energetic performance from a talented young band to end the night.