Saint Motel Black and White Show: Concert Review

Saturday night at The Roxy. Despite the evening’s theme being the Black and White show, it was by far a most colorful event. Quite simply, if you weren’t there, you should have been. Shall we elaborate?

Saint Motel by no means is new to the live music scene, a fact made obvious by their confident yet gracious stage presence and a general suave work-the-room-ability. Their first performance at The Roxy ended up being pretty much anything a concert-goer could want and more. With performances by preceding acts Army Navy, Red Arrow Messenger, and Rumspringa, the curtains lifted to the band in an introduction to their hour-long or so set – which, by the looks of the crowd, was not going to be long enough.

With white flowers attached to their microphone stands and dressed in their best black and white variations, they launched into things with a contagious energy that would spread to the outermost corners of the venue. Unique to the performance wasn’t just the visuals projected as their onstage backdrop – we’re talking alternating cuts/edits of live visuals of the audience, close-ups of the band members, clips from music videos and film in (what else) black and white.

What was more so unique was how difficult it was to discern who in attendance was a virgin to the Saint Motel experience or well-versed in their rhymes and lyrical reasonings. The majority of the crowd, if not clapping, whooping, or smiling in sheer interest, was singing along and dancing almost inherently. “Feel Our Wrath”, making their way to particular favorites “Butch”, “Do Everything Now”, “To My Enemies”, and “Show Me Where You Want It”. You name it, it was a fan favorite.

What totally threw the night for an entertaining spin wasn’t just the demands for an encore met with much kick-assery. No, what did the trick was the audience’s most interesting way of saying “thank you” – with no apparent fear of security, a number of fans rushed the stage out of nowhere. Rushed. It was seamless, actually, but still a very “WTF, OMG this is intense” moment. Meanwhile, Saint Motel didn’t miss a beat. It all happened in such a way that one would think it happens at every one of their performance. Whether likely or not, something tells us this wasn’t the first time.

We started things off by stating that if you weren’t at The Roxy Saturday night, you should have been. With slight revision, we should have instead said that if you haven’t yet been to a Saint Motel show and you currently live in the Los Angeles area, there’s  really no excuse. You’ve no idea what you’re missing.

Check out our entire photo gallery from the extravaganza!

Photography by Andrew White