Live Review: All Our Exes Live In Texas, Ports

Don't want to choose between eating a succulent chicken parmigiana and catching a gig? Heritage Hotel have a solution for that! They put the tables smack bang in front of the stage and let you chow down as you watch the show. And tonight, punters had no problem eating up everything pop quartet All Our Exes Live in Texas had to offer. 

Irish lads Ports broke up their gentle folk-rock tracks with humorous tales from their time on the road - all of which were made funnier by the lure of their thick northern Irish accents. To cap off their set, the four-piece band stepped off the stage to perform acoustically among attendees. They sung beautiful four-piece harmonies - which covered the high notes, the baritone and everything in between - finishing to rapturous applause.

Bolstered by an additional drummer and bassist, folk-pop quartet All Our Exes Live in Texas played their debut album, When We Fall, to a mature crowd content on sitting, either in their seats or on the floor, and soaking in the show.

The singer-songwriter group kicked off with Tell Me – pausing midway through the song to strike spontaneous ‘tree poses’ – and, holy shit, those harmonies! Ringing out over the accordion, ukulele, mandolin and acoustic guitar, these fierce ladies each respectively arm themselves with their combined synergetic vocal harmonies that, thankfully, feature in all their tracks. 

Chats amongst themselves made for quality laugh-out-loud moments. They played off each other well, frequently talking over each other excitedly but all the while keeping the thread going until the story led back to the original story that led into their next song. 

They finished within the crowd, joined by Ports, with All Our Exes Live in Texas guitarist Katie Wighton leading the vocal ensemble in an angelic acoustic performance of their track Don’t Cry. With engaging banter, a huge range of fleshed-out tracks and an ability to make their audience feel completely at ease, this relatively new group played the type of holistic show most bands require whole careers to reach.