Saint Motel | Live Review

One thing that really stood out was that you don’t have to be familiar with their music to enjoy it.

Considering they have only released one top forty single here in the UK, there was a surprisingly big turnout for Los Angeles quartet Saint Motel at The Lanes last Saturday. Off the back of their success over in the states, the band released their first UK single ‘My Type’ earlier this year. Since then, they seem to have taken the Britpop scene by storm.

Judging by Saturday night’s turnout, they have already managed to pull together a solid fan-base, complete with a couple of super-fans taking front-row spots. The support act, Yes Rebels, got the crowd going before they stepped out onto the stage just gone 10pm.

They kicked off their forty-five minute set with ‘Honest Feedback’, and continued with a few tracks from their 2012 debut album ‘Voyeur’. A particular crowd pleaser was ‘Cold Cold Man’ which they released as an EP earlier this year. They then continued with a mix of tracks from their album and their 2014 EP including the well-known ‘My Type’ which got everybody jumping before finishing up with ‘Stories’, the penultimate track from their debut album.

One thing that really stood out was that you don’t have to be familiar with their music to enjoy it. It has a timeless feel, and uplifting toe tapping rhythms that are genuinely moreish. As the band left the stage, the crowd adorned a few mouth trumpets to the tune of ‘My Type’. But to be fair, they don’t really have enough material yet to warrant an encore.

After the show, lead singer AJ Jackson was outside mingling around. This was his first time visiting Bristol and he said: “It’s fantastic with a capital F… It seems like everyone has a lot of fun in this city…” They were catching a morning flight to Paris to continue their tour so weren’t able to stick around and enjoy the sights, but he assured me they definitely had plans to return. Drummer Greg Erwin then joined us when we were talking about their trip to the UK, and said the first thing they did when they arrived here was go and get a roast dinner – with an extra side of Yorkshire puddings! They were both such friendly guys and you could feel their genuine excitement for what the future has in store. And they’re not the only ones – I can’t wait to see what more this band has got to offer.

Check out ‘My Type’ right here: