Review: Saint Motel and JR JR Bring Joyous Performance to Neptune Theatre

Rising indie-pop-rock outfit Saint Motel recently came to the Neptune Theatre on a tour supporting their forthcoming record, saintmotelevision, projected for an October 2016 release date. The highly-anticipated night of blissful fun started off with Weathers taking the stage at the Neptune, and then JR JR right after that. I have to say that JR JR impressed me a lot by their attire they wore on stage, which alone made them a little hard to forget. The whole band wore sparkly poncho covers on top of their shirts, which added much more visual excitement to the show. Both were very energetic and expertly started the dance party that would follow for the rest of the night.

The introduction to Saint Motel was through an ’70s television box that was placed in the middle of the stage in front of the mic, which displayed visuals as a tension-building lead-in to when the band finally came out and opened their set with “Local Long Distance Relationship.” The same monitor would light up during every song to display the name of the track that was being played live. It was a pretty cool prop, and it went well with the whole theme of the saintmotelevision album and tour. It was something so simple, yet added so much to the live performance and made it feel especially ambitious.

“Local Long Distance Relationship” was followed by a couple of my favorites, “Cold Cold Man,” and “Feed Me Now,” a one-two punch that made the floor of the venue shake from all the frantic dancing and jumping around. A few tracks were on the slower side, but for most of the set, everyone danced around to Saint Motel’s tunes, which almost always make the listener want to dance along, even at home. From what we heard on Wednesday night, it sounds like it’s going to be a must-have for anyone who likes their indie pop danceable and joyous.

Towards the end of the main set, they played “Puzzle Pieces,” “Sweet Talk,” and ended with “Move.” Their encore included their smash hit “My Type,” “Destroyer,” and “Born Again.” I had heard from so many people how fun they were live prior to seeing them myself at the Neptune, and I couldn’t agree more now that I was a part of one of their live performances myself. There is no way you can stop yourself from dancing through their set and leaving in a better mood than what you came with.

(For more eye-candy photos of the Neptune Theatre performance, click here.)