Palaye Royale, Auckland NZ, 2018

Palaye Royale

12th December 2018
The Tuning Fork, Auckland, New Zealand.

Review by Alex Moulton. Photography by Ginelle Cocks.

It was a quiet evening at Mahuhu Crescent as Fire For Glory took to the stage at Auckland’s The Tuning Fork. The only support act for Palaye Royale, you could tell they had some diehard fans amongst the crowd with song requests being yelled out well before instruments were even donned.

Having been called in to open twenty-four hours before the show, Fire For Glory were more than happy to oblige. Unfortunately, such short notice wasn’t enough time for their drummer to make his way up to Auckland, so previous drummer Shay Walsh was brought back into the fold, giving him a day to relearn their set as well as a new track. Watching Fire For Glory perform, there is a noticeably distinct difference in energy between Walsh and his bandmates, who are obviously absolutely chuffed to be up on stage, performing with an impressive amount of vigour.

The all ages crowd were packed right up front, and were just as excited to be there, cheering and applauding the band that many of them had never come across before, vocalist Josh Pinho was lapping up the attention and squeals from the audience. Getting into their second track ‘Smile’, it was apparent that the sound at the venue was less than ideal; vocals really being the only aspect that you could hear clearly, the house music playing prior louder than the band, which was unfortunate as the tracks would have sounded spectacular with more volume from the bass and guitar.

Aware that they were an unknown band to many, Pinho makes the most of his time bantering, explaining that they have decided to insert some covers into their set, so that the whole audience can sing along to at least one song; and choose a great song they did. The audience erupted as they began to play Fall Out Boy’s ‘Sugar We’re Goin Down’ and sang to their hearts content, arms high in the air. A dynamic display from Fire For Glory – despite the lacklustre sound from the venue – showcasing an enviable amount of charm and control on stage as they warmed up the crowd with plenty of chants, clapping and pogo dancing.

Just as 9pm ticks over, the headliner for the night, Palaye Royale, head out on-stage midway through Childish Gambino’s ‘This is America’; the crowd in absolute hysterics as the three Kropp brothers take their places along with their two additional touring musicians. Coming off the back of the Australian ‘Good Things Festival’ over the weekend the boys on stage look tired but optimistic as they launch into their final show for the year. Starting the set off with ‘Don’t Feel Quite Right’, the sound was still sadly less than ideal. The venue itself feeling emptier and far quieter than usual, but with an intimate crowd of likely no more than two hundred, you just needed to get up close.

The fans themselves however were feverish, screaming each time lead vocalist Remington Leith or guitarist Sebastian Danzig looked at anyone or even simply took a step towards the crowd.

There is great chemistry between all the musicians as they move about the stage working off of each other’s energies, but Remington is a showman, and his focus is entirely on pleasing the crowd. Charging through ‘He’ll Be Fine’ and ‘Death Dance’ the band start to warm up and Remington begun to unbutton the suit jacket he was wearing, much to the excitement of the audience. With a sound that closely resembles the love child between My Chemical Romance and Arctic Monkeys that was brought up in the punk scene; from a musical standpoint everything was faultless.

You could tell Remington is used to having more space to move, rushing around like a caged animal he looks like he’s seizing on stage as he tries to keep animated within such a restricted amount of space. Throwing out new track ‘Fucking With My Head’, the song is simple and lyrically repetitive during the chorus, which the crowd absolutely loved, singing and screaming along as they tried to reach out and make physical contact with Remington. All phones out, and torchlights turned on as Palaye Royale slowed everything down for ‘Ma Chérie’. Losing his jacket entirely Remington sauntered around the stage topless, trying to address every member of the audience as he performed, frequently jumping down into the photographer’s pit to be nearer to the fans who were in turn frantically trying to get closer to him.

One particular fan – who had been desperately trying to get Remington’s attention – is eventually mentioned by the frontman, “I’m not going to wear your hat. Do you know how much hair spray I use a day? Unbelievable!” he says with a coy smile. Lifting his arms, the crowd scream, again and again he lifts his arms, and again and again the crowd howl, until Sebastian and Emerson Barrett on drums begin to play ‘Mr. Doctor Man’.

Ending the set on ‘How Do You Do’ the fans are still shouting for more, but Remington instead wanders through the crowd and starts climbing the lighting rigs above them, swinging from side to side, he left Sebastian and Emerson to musically hold the fort on stage.

Disappearing backstage for just a moment, nobody moves a muscle, Payale Royale returning with an encore performance of My Chemical Romance’s ‘Teenagers’, and an announcement that it would indeed be their last song – but they’d be outside afterwards to meet everyone. As the track finished the venue emptied at speed as fans rushed outside to wait for the three brothers to emerge.

An intimate show in which they gave it their all and yet humble enough to stick around and meet people afterwards? You can’t not respect this Canadian rock band.

Were you there at The Tuning Fork for this art rock extravaganza? Or have you seen Palaye Royale perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!

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