LIVE REVIEW: Royal Republic @ Academy 2, Manchester

There’s perhaps a case to be made that, over the last several years, Swedish hard-rockers ROYAL REPUBLIC have quietly arisen to become one of rock’s most reliably consistent bands. Nearly a decade on from the release of their stellar debut, We Are The Royal, and with fourth full-length Club Majesty having released back in May to almost universal acclaim, the quartet seem to be on somewhat of a roll ever since they got started, particularly in the live front, where they’ve accrued an immense reputation for chaotic fun seemingly every time they plug in. With that in mind, we headed over to Academy 2 in Manchester, about a week into their most recent tour, to see how they’d get on.

Munich’s BLACKOUT PROBLEMS  are up first tonight; the German act finding immediately finding themselves somewhat at odds with tonight’s main event and the massive crowd here for them. With a sound self-described as ‘dark-pop’, but mostly sounding closer to emo-tinged indie rock, with occasional deviation into more electronic and alt-rock tendencies across their rather lengthy-feeling set, the four piece certainly try their best to amp up the waiting crowd, but it all honestly feels a little bit futile. Frontman Mario Radetzky certainly has enough energy about him to be an entertaining watch, frequently jumping off-stage and atop the crowd barrier several times during their set, but his antics are about the most entertaining part of an otherwise fairly bland-feeling performance.

Rating: 4/10

ROYAL REPUBLIC on the other hand, couldn’t announce their arrival in a better way if they tried. Emerging in matching bright gold sequinned suits, the Swedes certainly cut a bombastic figure on the Academy 2 stage, and the fever pitch at which the audience seem to remain at for the entirety of their set is instantaneous. Of course, it probably helps that their opening gambit is to turn up and immediately launch into Fireman and Dancer, the brilliantly bouncy lead single from this year’s Club Majesty record. Several hundred people seem to simultaneously lose their minds from those very first opening notes, and quickly the entire room becomes a madcap blur of jumping, dancing and general good times.

Serving as ringmaster of it all is Adam Grahn, a vocalist/guitarist perhaps best described personality-wise as a combination of the retro swagger and style of professional wrestler Joey Ryan, and a less directly crude version of STEEL PANTHER’s Michael Starr. His vocal range proves perhaps ROYAL REPUBLIC’s most valuable asset across their set tonight, with the charismatic frontman able to effortlessly jump between a more punky shout (Stop Movin’) and an impressively melodic new-wave croon (Anna-Leigh) at will. Most impressively of ROYAL REPUBLIC‘s set tonight by a considerable distance though, is that every single one of the 17 songs they pack into their time onstage feels like it could be the absolute pinnacle of any other band’s canon, such is the instantaneous nature of them. The mere fact that a song as brilliant and beloved as Tommy Gun doesn’t make an appearance until 13th in the set really speaks volumes as to the amount of genius material that Grahn and co. are cramming into these gigs.

Other old favourites like Walk! and the brilliantly-titled Make Love Not War (If You Have to Make War – Make Sure to Make Time to Make Love in Between) spread across the evening have just about everyone present jumping up and down as though possessed too, and there’s even a ridiculous show-stopping moment in which Underwear sees Grahn randomly pelted with a thong from an audience member, which he naturally proceeds to play around with before carrying on, not even losing a step. Whatever tiny shred of subtlety remains is eventually thrown out of a window by the midpoint of the show as well, as the slinky almost-T. REX-with-electronics groove of Like A Lover concludes and the band leave the stage, only for bassist Jonas Almén to return wielding a keytar and launch into a mashup of Jump by VAN HALEN and The Final Countdown by EUROPE, much to the delight of the now-heavily-inebriated room.

Placed in any other show, it’d probably feel a bit overly self-indulgent, but thrown in amongst ROYAL REPUBLIC‘s unashamedly campy and daft mixture of rock, disco and punk, it simply comes across as yet another brilliantly-calculated crowd pleaser. As time rolls on, and the band finally reach their three-pronged encore of When I See You Dance With Another, Flower Power Madness and Baby; you can’t help but take a step back and look out across the room at the sheer amount of joy evident on the faces of just about everyone witnessing ROYAL REPUBLIC‘s set tonight. They might not seem like the most serious of acts in the rock world on-paper, but take any time to see them in action and you’ll realise just how tight a live band they are, and how committed this set of Swedes are to simply spreading joy wherever they can through the power of bombastic rock music.

Rating: 9/10 

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Manchester from Sabrina Ramdoyal Photography here: