During the summer of 2024, Australian indie rock band Royel Otis were in Glasgow for TRNSMT Festival where they played a memorable forty-five minute set and they are now back in the city as part of a marathon world tour promoting their debut album release PRATTS & PAIN. They have also released three EPs – Campus (2021), Bar n Grill (2022) and Sofa Kings (2023) so had a good repertoire of tracks to choose from on this tour. They left a great impression on the crowd that day and we were very keen to see them on the tour with SWG3 being our venue for tonight’s sold-out show. Formed in Sydney in 2019 by Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic the band’s name is derived from both their first names.
We arrived just as tonight’s support and fellow Australians Sonic Reducer were taking to the stage earlier than expected at half seven and are glad that we caught them as their half-hour performance was faultless. As well as the UK leg of the tour they also supported them on the EU tour, they are a mix of punk and rock music and charismatic frontman Cormac McKahey was the standout reminding us at times of a young Mick Jagger or Ian Brown, not bad comparisons really! They are beginning to make a mark on the music scene back in Canberra and we are sure to be hearing more of them in the near future. We have been lucky enough to see two other Australian bands during November – Amyl and the Sniffers and Confidence Man – the Aussie music scene is alive and kicking. The track Totally Wired is played in the style of Irish band Fontaines D.C. or Liverpudlians STONE while freshly released song Dip Me In Honey sounds great live but for us Wife In The City is the best of the set for a band playing in Scotland for the first time. One Of The Lads ends the set in true punk style with plenty of expletives added in for good measure. We hope to be hearing from Sonic Reducer again. 8/10
The usual SWG3 mayhem at the bar ensued as we waited patiently for ten minutes but all that was soon abandoned as Royel Otis took to the stage at 8.30pm and began the set with Heading For The Door taken from their debut album, we can confirm that nobody was actually heading for the door but most were heading back from the bar! The Glory To Glory Tour has gotten off to a great start as the set continues with four more tracks from PRATTS & PAIN, the young crowd are enjoying themselves here. Looking back at the setlist later they actually played twelve tracks from the album missing out only Always Always, they did a great job of showcasing the album on this tour. Royel Maddell has his face hidden by his curly blonde hair for most of the set in true Kurt Cobain style and the stage is smoke filled throughout the set, at times it’s hard to even see synth player Tim Arye and drummer Julian Sudek at the back of the stage but they are both adding to the ambience of the performance. Last month If Our Love Is Dead was released and is not on the album, it has quickly became a big one for the fans to learn the lyrics to as they sang them back confidently while Nack Nostalgia, Fried Rice and Til The Morning keep the energy high.
After releasing a cover of Sophie Ellis-Bextor dancefloor classic Murder On The Dancefloor in January 2024 via Triple J Like A Version, it propelled the band upwards and this one went down well tonight as we all sang the words back to the stage. It’s one of the best of the set as it was at TRNSMT in July, from here on in it’s all hard hitting songs now as the main set ends with Oysters In My Pocket, the band’s biggest track to date with over 105 millions streams on Spotify alone. The two songs in the encore provided more opportunities for a mass singalong as The Cranberries anthemic song Linger from the 1990s begins, the energy is through the roof now as the set ends with Kool Aid, taken from the Sofa Kings EP. Royel and Otis had an amazing energy tonight and the band/audience connection was special throughout the show.
This world tour has propelled Royel Otis to a wider audience and the next time they drop in to Glasgow we would expect them to be playing at Barrowland or the O2 Academy. Lets hope that they don’t leave it too long! We have counted up the Royel Otis tour dates and since they began the tour in Philadelphia on 2nd May they have played no less than ninety-seven dates! They now head home to Australia for some homeland tour dates and then a well-deserved rest. 9/10
Written by: Alan Brown
