Palaye Royale live at The Roundhouse review 12/03/2022

Written by Kahmel Farahani
Photos by Aggie Anthimidou Photography

Tonight The Roundhouse in Camden is packed to bursting with a very young & devoted crowd, one where even the instruments being tuned gets a yell of approval. This is because the noise surrounding Palaye Royale is reaching fever pitch.

As the lights go down, guitarist Sebastian Danzig and drummer Emerson Barrett take the stage as the crowd goes wild. Looking like he just walked off the pages of the Death Note Manga comics, frontman Remington Leith takes center stage and the young crowd goes into rapture as they kick into Nightmare.

 

 

It leads into the indie rock gone wild sound of You’ll Be Fine. They manage to start the 2nd song before they stop to help a few fainting fans out of the crowd and restart. Its easy to see Palaye Royale have a dedicated fanbase.

Palaye Royale’s albums so far have been a finely tweaked and produced set of songs, but the same songs live sound, arguably, better. With the extra layers of varnish and polish stripped away, their sound is purer rock verging on punk.

 

 

The addition of guitarist Andrew Martin and former Eagles Of Death Metal bassist Jennie Vee has elevated Palaye Royale’s live sound into something much harder and more thrilling. Both Vee and Martin (the latter looking like Glen Hughes circa 1974) are visually and musically impressive and do a great job of fleshing out the bands sound into something bigger. Songs like Death Dance or the electro pop of recent single No Love In L.A.

 

 

All lighters (and mobiles) are held aloft for the excellent Dying In A Hot Tub before Get Higher gets a mosh going. Tonight’s performance has been as tight as a steel trap and seems to prove without a shadow of a doubt that Palaye Royale are ready for the big league.

 

 

A natural evolution of bands like My Chemical Romance and Green Day crossed with the 70s glam sensibilities of T.Rex and The Faces, its a winning formula. This is brought home when the band do a superb cover of My Chemical Romance’s anthemic Teenagers. It sends the entire Roundhouse wild with everyone in sight jumping up and down, phones in hand.

 

 

The energy levels of both the band and their fans is on another level tonight, especially once frontman Remington decides to go on a running tour of The Roundhouse’s balcony seats before making his way through a throng of his adoring fans on the floor level.

 

 

Their single song encore starts with frontman Remington playing the first verse of emo ballad Lonely solo on a piano in the middle of the crowd before moving back to center stage and wrapping up with the full band. At just over an hour long, their performance certainly leaves everyone wanting more. A superb showcase from a band with a very promising future.