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Jordan, Jared, Joe, Kane and Glen aka Avalanche Party have been described as “angry” and “hard-hitting”. But it’s the recent “feral” tag that hits the spot and makes the band smile.
You didn't know you had a favourite feral garage rock band? You do now.
The band’s surprise encounter with the magician, Dynamo, at Reading on Friday night might take home the gong for most surreal moment of the festival weekend – but enticing a tidy little crowd over to the BBC Introducing stage in Reading with their brutally wailing performance might live longer in the memory.
Their performance in the mid-afternoon Saturday slot was easily the most interesting and exciting witnessed on the BBC Introducing stage up to that point. What came was no longer mild and stage-frightened. Avalanche Party were angry, intense. It was a performance that saw the lead singer, Jordan, in his ripped red shirt, get right up in the face of the opportunity and demand to be heard. The five-piece thrashed out a performance that mattered.
“Today was great. Nobody knew us and we drew everyone in,” says Kane, the drummer in the band. “The crowd was three or four times more than I thought it was going to be. We didn't expect anyone to be there at all.”
“Speak for yourself,” chips in Jordan dryly.
Formed in the “middle of nowhere in the North Yorkshire Moors” by brothers Jordan and Joe, the pair first “nicked” Kane from another band in the North East, before reeling in Jared and Glen to form Avalanche Party. A supergroup of sorts.
BBC Teeside tastemaker Bob Fischer played the band’s first single ‘Money’ a couple of years ago. With an eponymous debut EP also behind them, the visceral Northerners have received radio play from the likes of Tom Robinson, Steve Lamacq and Huw Stevens.
“The support has been amazing,” says Jordan. “Bob has been really supportive of us all the way through. He’s got another band playing this festival [Mouses] as well, so it’s good for him because he does a lot for the Teeside music scene.”
It’s a scene that’s attracting ever closer attention.
“We’re good mates with Coquin Migale [Friday night’s BBC Introducing headliners at Reading] and there’s also a band called Eat Fast,” namedrops Kane. “The North East in general has a really good scene. There’s bands playing in York, Middlesborough, Darlington, Staves..”
“..Skelton Green,” adds Jordan with a smile.
Slots on the BBC Introducing stage are going some way to helping the rest of the country catch up with what’s going on in the North East. With European dates in the pipeline and new material planned, make sure you catch Avalanche Party “get down and smash it” soon – and prove why they’re your favourite feral garage rock band too.
