This past Saturday October 1, Palaye Royale performed for a full house at Detroit’s St Andrews Hall with support from MOD SUN, carolesdaughter and Starbenders. Palaye Royale are in the middle of a 25-city American tour in support of their current album release Fever Dream.
The energy this band has in its live performances is unparalleled! Right from the opening chords of Nightmares from their last album The Bastards, vocalist Remington Leith, guitarist Sebastion Danzig (The oldest of the three Kropp brothers), and touring guitarist Andrew Martin were rocking hard and bounding back and forth across the small stage.
Three songs into the set they played their first song from Fever Dream, No Love in LA which has been out as a single for about a year and a half now. Out of the 14-song set, five of them were from Fever Dream including the title track which was played to close out the main set, with the crowd loudly singing along.
St Andrews is a great place to see live music if you’ve never been. It’s a small venue but it has great character and a balcony that runs right around above the main floor. Often performers will climb up into the balcony and that is Remington Leith’s trademark, climbing stuff during shows much to the chagrin of venues, I’m sure. This show was no exception as he climbed up into the balcony to sing to the people in the cheap seats and ran down the back stairs and through the crowd back to the stage. Both he and Sebastion jumped down into the pit more than once during the evening to get close to the fans with Sebastion laying back over the fans looking like he was going to crowd surf with his guitar at one point.
photo by Dan Boshart
These guys dress for success, calling their style “Fashion-art Rock” with a definite leaning towards the Glam Rock look of the early 70’s. Singer Leith is a glammed-up version of Iggy Pop while older brother Sebastian leans towards colourful suits and drummer Emerson has a passion for sailor caps, stripes, top hats and marching band jackets. Guitarist Andrew Martin could be the reincarnation of Marc Bolan. I love a visual show and theirs is one of the best in my opinion. The large Incandescent Palaye Royale sign that hangs behind the band is perfection.
There were moments of mellow when Leith played keyboard intros side stage for the songs Paranoid and Lonely, the latter of which was the bands encore. But even in the quietest moments, Lonely started soft and slow and finished loud and frenetic with the crowd singing along to a great closing song, a song that the fans connect to their musical heroes with.
There’s a strong fan base for this band and they showed the love this night both ways. It’s truly a wonderful experience to see, even for a casual fan like myself. I think I’m hooked. This band is the real deal.
MOD SUN played a very lively set to warm the crowd up. It appeared there was a good portion of his fans in attendance as well and he gave them his all for the short time he was on stage. He talked about his sobriety of three and a half years at one point and brought his sister out on stage to introduce her to the crowd.
The Fever Dream tour continues for a couple more weeks on the west coast before taking a little break and then resuming in mid-January for a long run of European dates. For more on Palaye Royale, visit palayeroyale.com.
Palaye Royale with MOD SUN, carolesdaughter and Starbenders
St. Andrews Hall
Detroit, MI
October 1, 2022
All photos by Dan Boshart
Set List:
- Nightmares
- You’ll Be fine
- No Love in LA
- Fucking With My Head
- Hang On to Yourself
- Paranoid
- Broken
- Dying in a Hot Tub
- Punching bag
- Get Higher
- Mr. Doctor Man
- Fever Dream
Encore:
- Lonely
Palaye Royale
Mod Sun
Carolesdaughter
