Manchester Orchestra/The Xcerts
02 Academy,

Bristol
02/10/2011

A quick glance at Manchester Orchestra’s T-shirts on sale tonight – impressed with vintage baseball designs -  is a small clue to the extent of the Atlanta quintet’s collegiate American-ness. And, later, we find our suspicions confirmed. Yes siree, these alt-country-emo-pop rockers are primed for

US college rock radio. But more of that later.

On the subject of national identity, The Xcerts were clearly schooled at the Scottish academy of lyrical grunge pop. They drop Idlewild’s art-college pretensions and Biffy‘s calculated angles, though, preferring instead to focus on straight-up power-pop. From the off, these whippersnappers are ballsy and eager to please. Top marks for their driving rock clout, their bland, Topman-endorsed presentation notwithstanding. Opener ‘Do You Feel Safe?’ is exemplar of what

Britain excels at: no-frills punk-rock with hooks that bury in your head for weeks. Certainly, with a little extra homework, they have the potential to graduate to stadium-grade status.

At the centre of

Manchester Orchestra’s indie-rock pomp is portly, grizzled arranger, Andy Hull. His magnetic storytelling and knack for a stomping riff salvage an otherwise bog-standard display of bleeding-heart

Americana a la Brand New and Modest Mouse. On opener ‘Deer’

Hull plays earnest everyman, thrumming a country-tinged dedication to “everybody that has paid to see” his band as softly fingered organ wafts by. For the remainder of the set, he bleats – nasally like Brian Aubert from Silversun Pickups – over rockier manoeuvres, all MTV-qualified mawk-rock. Drummer Tim Very pounds from on high on tracks like ‘Shake it Out’, dropping beats that elicit head-bang approval, but there’s nothing the band can do to shake up their neatly pressed, high-school-ready, prime-time rock pageantry.

Jamie Skey