Royal Republic (w/ Dinosaur Pile-Up, Bleeker) @ Rescue Rooms (Nottingham, UK) on October 8, 2016 [Photos & Show Review]

When I opened the doors to Nottingham’s Rescue Rooms I was met with a wall of heat and a packed-out venue. Five out of six UK dates from “The Weekend Man” tour had sold out, Nottingham being one of them. First of the night’s two supports was Bleeker – they gave a solid and noticeably happy performance, it was exciting to see how thrilled they were to be on this tour. During “Highway” vocalist Taylor Perkins gave an especially spirited performance, at one moment getting down on the stage. Perkins also took a moment before their final song to introduce the band members, to much applause.

Dinosaur Pile-Up have that satisfying, overdrive/fuzz sound, reminiscent of Weezer, and they blasted out several songs from their 2013 album Nature Nurture including its title track and “White T-Shirt and Jeans”. Lead singer and guitarist Matt Bigland made a persistent effort to warm up the crowd and to gain more cheers and applause, but the audience was reluctant to give much back. Despite this fairly muted response, people were still moving and head-banging throughout, particularly during their single “Eleven Eleven” whose Royal Blood-style riff I could listen to all day.

Just before Royal Republic came on stage I noticed that everything, down to the towels, was colour co-ordinated yellow and black and to match the band colours. This attention to detail carried through to their whole performance. Mounted behind the band were two huge lightning bolts which illuminated the four-piece at perfectly choreographed moments. They played a wide range of material from “Underwear”, “Tommy-Gun” and “Everybody Wants To Be An Astronaut” to tracks from their latest album Weekend-Man. Adam Grahn paused between songs to declare that “everyone here is a ‘weekend-man'”, at which point a booming voice reigned down on the Rescue Rooms – the “Weekend-Man” himself. During this moment of theatre Grahn and the other band members were granted supreme rock powers for the rest of the gig. This bizarre interlude is one of the reasons the fans love the band so much, and was reflected by the audience’s fun and friendly attitude.

VIP tickets had also been on sale before the show, granting VIPs backstage access, which proved extremely popular as the band hadn’t toured in the UK since 2014, hence the sold-out shows.
While the band may be a little too eccentric for my taste, their showmanship and relationship with their fans is impressive and something to be admired, and they will have left the UK fans eager to see more.

Check out the song “Any Given Sunday”