Marty O'Reilly and the Old Soul Orchestra @ NAC
Something fleetingly special
You’d be forgiven for having absolutely no bloody idea what’s about to come when Marty O’Reilly shuffles on stage, bouncing up and down on his toes and radiating nervous energy all over the place as he says hello to the Arts Centre. Opening up, there’s a few warms chords, a voice full of nice, raspy soul and not a hint of anything more. But then The Old Soul Orchestra come to have their say. Marty kicks it up a gear and the four-piece make it their single-minded mission to thrill the Norwich collective with a stampede of string and percussion.
It’s blues chaos but in the best possible way, masterfully controlled by a set of fine musicians, and little details bring depth and expanse to the on-stage stories that O’Reilly crafts using his shivering vocal and nimble resonator guitar. Jeff Kissell beats at the upright bass like a primate pounding its chest; a full-blooded groove that’ll put goosebumps on your goosebumps when it hits peak potency. Recent addition Matt Goff glides around his drum kit and drives through track after track with feel and fever, whilst violinist Chris Lynch is a born showman, shredding up both songs and bowstrings in a rush of manic carnivalesque brilliance. Tracks swing from dizzy to ice cool and through everything in-between, drawing on old icons and making for something that will never catch a mainstream wave but which in nigh-on astounding. It’s a few hours of joyfully unrestrained foot-stamping sound and the unplugged singalong encore in the bar only adds to the sense that maybe, just maybe, you’ve just seen something fleetingly special.
