LIVE REVIEW: Palaye Royale @ Electric Brixton, London

Few bands seem to divide opinions like PALAYE ROYALE right now. Depending on who you ask they are either hailed as the saviours of rock or seen as one of the worst bands ever. This divisive nature isn’t doing anything to stop their rise as they pack out the Electric Brixton on the last night of this UK tour.

Openers THE HAUNT completely fail to leave any real impression. Their singer might have an impressive voice especially considering her young age but their bluesy rock songs feel so trite and formulaic. The whole thing just comes across as such a manufactured experience as the band strut and pose around the stage in the most predictable way. There is some potential that they might grow into something more organic sounding especially as they are so young but the band have a long way to go.

Rating: 4/10

With their name lit up in giant letters across the back of the stage, it feels like PALAYE ROYALE already have a flair for drama. They also arrive on stage in fancy outfits and clearly have placed a lot of focus on their image. Of course before they even arrive on stage the screams that come from the crowd are deafening. It is impossible to deny just how much their fans love this band. As for the live show, there’s plenty of energy from the band and their stage presence never feels too forced or rehearsed. Unlike a lot of other bands being hyped up as the next big thing, PALAYE ROYALE at least seem happy to embrace rock music as their sound instead of resorting to slightly alternative pop music.

Almost every song has at least one big riff and whilst Remington Leith‘s snarling vocals do sound like a slightly cheap imitation of Gerard Way there’s still some attitude there. They even bust out a cover of Teenagers which serves as the real low point of the set. They do nothing to make the cover sound even slightly original and all it does is show that PALAYE ROYALE have got a way to go before they release any music as good as the band many see them as the successors to. Again, none of the songs performed tonight are particularly bad but this cover does drag the evening down. Not that it matters to their fans though. You could ask any of tonight’s crowd what they thought and most of them would tell you it was their favourite gig ever.

So whether PALAYE ROYALE are good or not at this point almost feels irrelevant. They have such a dedicated following that they are going to be massive regardless of what the naysayers think. And if they develop their sound and ditch the more entitled and problematic aspects of their attitude, such as whinging about venue closures or smashing up gear they were loaned for this show, then they might even win some people over. But based on this headline show, PALAYE ROYALE certainly have at least been able to show hints of justifying the hype.

Rating: 6/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in London from Karolina Janikunaite here: