The Revivalists Present: The Otherside of Paradise Cruise

Saint Motel, the indie rock band hailing from L.A, produce an incredible cross genre of music from pop, to progressive indie, and rock. All of the instrumentalists in the band are exceptionally talented, and watching them live really demonstrates how they’re able to manipulate they’re vocals and their instruments for the style they’re playing.

The show opened with A/J Jackson shouting out to the audience from back stage ‘is everybody ready, let’s made some noise’, before the house lights went down and their overture music began. They ran onto the stage to a huge applause before Aaron Sharp broke into an epic guitar solo, whilst A/J introduced the band over the top.

They played a really great selection of tracks, even going right back to their EP ForPlay, and journeying right the way through to their brand new EP, My Type. Along the way they took requests from us in the audience, and played several tracks from their album, Voyeur. When they played Ace in The Hole, they taught us all the chorus and got us to sing along, which was a lot of fun, and a great experience for a live show.

It’s not every day that you see a mainstream 7-piece jam band complete with trumpet and saxophone hit the road, but similar to the likes of Moon Taxi and The Wild Feathers, the New Orleans based Revivalists deliver the enthusiastic twang of a southern alt rock band playing with a genuine and undeniably innate sense of rhythm.

For such a big outfit, the guys are close yet comfortable on stage, each ingratiating himself inconspicuously before coming together as a group both mentally and musically for the drop. Vocalist David Shaw’s rough yet rich delivery is at times reminiscent of Ray LaMontage’s husky but passionate tone (especially when he’s stripped down with only a guitar). Shaw not only genuinely inflects his commitment to the song using his powerful voice, but also through his onstage presence, fumblingly calculatedly around onstage while continuously encouraging the crowd and interacting with the front row die-hards.

The unrelenting saxophone, along with the trumpet, pierce the melody, adding to the highly energetic and involving performance; it’s exactly what you’d expect from a 7-piece jam band.

With an EP and two albums under their belt, including a 2014 re-release of the two-disc City of Sound, The Revivalists offer a grand, one-of-a-kind musical experience, continuously touring North America with the entire band in tow.