Last weekend I experienced a double whammy of Royal
Republic, when a slight scheduling mishap meant that I had tickets to see them
at The Garage in Islington on Friday and then The Haunt in Brighton on Saturday. And
how could I say no to that?!
I stumbled across Royal Republic a few years ago whilst consuming pizza, beer and copious amounts of
music television with a very good friend. The video for Tommy Gun came on and when it had finished we immediately shot each other a look that said ‘well that was fucking awesome!’. Within a few weeks we
were at The Barfly seeing them live for the first time.
We have seen them on several occasions since then and I will always go
back for more, because as live bands go they are pretty hard to beat. So how to
describe them? Formed in Malmo, Sweden in 2007, they combine rock and roll,
awesome riffs and a great/slightly ridiculous sense of humour (see Everyone Wants To Be An
Astronaut and Underwear).
Lead singer Adam Grahn was born to be on stage. You’re hard
pushed to find a front man with more charisma and let’s face it, he’s not too
bad to look at either! Oh and he knows it too. At a smaller show of theirs a somewhat inebriated Jen was stupid enough to shout out ‘I love you!’ during a quiet moment
between songs, to which Adam immediately responded ‘Thanks, I love me too!” We actually met him later that night and quite frankly I’m surprised he hasn’t
slapped a restraining order on me...
Their first album We Are The Royal was released in
2009, it was received well by critics and Tommy Gun reached number one on the MTV
Rockchart. They’ve toured the album extensively since then so it must be nice
for them (and us!) to finally have some new material to promote. Save The Nation is
shaping up to be every bit as good as their debut album, and the setlist both
nights was a mixture of both. Standout moments included Everyone Wants To Be An Astronaut, Full Steam Spacemachine,
I Must Be Out of My Mind and a spectacular a capella version of Addictive.
Friday night at The Garage was probably my favourite, mostly
just because I prefer the venue, but they put on a first class show both nights as expected. Yes, they are fantastic live musicians, but more than that they
are really good fun. Go and see them live and I promise you a great night – you’ll
be singing, dancing, laughing, and man or woman, I guarantee you will go home with a bit of a crush.
@RoyalRepulic
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