GIG REVIEW + GALLERY: Orchid Collective and Silences at The Workman's Club

After a stale McDonalds, hungover, and feeling like a salmon on its final stretch back home to die, I return to the well-frequented haunt that is Workman’s Club for Orchid Collective’s single launch. Support act Silences have emerged fashionably late to a zealous, cheering crowd.

Three girls who’ve warped magically from the 1970s – all high waisted boyfriend jeans, newsboy caps and thick rimmed glasses – dance riotously at front of stage for the first song. More inhibited members of the crowd look on enviously from the fringes.

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“Sorry we’re feeling a bit rough, we had a heavy night last night”, lead singer, Conchúr White, announces in his soft Armagh voice after they finish the opening tune. ‘Santa Cruz’ plays next. Sombre and teen angst-y in its ways, the crowd is impassioned with simple prog rock chord progressions and faint drum beats. Conchúr's baritone falsettos enter effortlessly into the limelight.

Another standout track in their set list is ‘Sadie’. Administering more gloom with a touch of pop rock, a less electronic comparison to The xx is to be found here, as the boys continue to shoe gaze and keep it delicately melancholic.

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The pinnacle of the night, however, is Orchid Collective. Rousing the audience with a catalogue of folk infused rock, they offer up emotional sucker punches with layers of reverbed guitars, vocal harmonies and uninhibited lyrics.

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‘L.A.Z.Y’, their newly released single - and the reasoning behind this gig - does not dismay. There’s yearning. Love sickness. It’s a song you put on after a flaming night with a beautiful foreigner who had to leave for home the next day. Spotify related artists would suggest Alt-J, Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver.

The bearded trio perform another poignant crowd favourite, ‘Courage’, which lead vocalists and guitarists David O’Shea and Shea Tohill hammer out in harmonic unison. It’s as though the pair’s vocal chords have been genetically modified for each other.

I eagerly await the next performances from Orchid Collective and Silences, if not too cheeky to suggest a collaboration. Both know how to steer through the sub genres of indie rock like champs.