Royel Otis | Margaret Court Arena
Royel Otis shot into the mainstream with their 2024 live cover of The Cranberries’ Linger. Their new album hickey, recorded in Los Angeles, reasserts them as an exceptional songwriting duo in their own right.
For the only Melbourne show on their Meet Me in the Car Tour, we’re seated on the left wing of the Margaret Court Arena bowl. As the lights dim on the crowd, the LCD screen behind the stage flashes black text on a pink background: “(welcome to the show)” and “(this is Royel Otis Live).” They open with the first track from the album, I Hate This Tune.
Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic, who make up the duo, are joined on stage by drummer Tim Commandeur, whose stage presence is incredible, expressive, energetic, and constantly engaging the crowd. Keyboardist Tim Ayre fills out the four-piece lineup, which boldly performs without a bassist.
By the time the drums kick in during the second verse of Car, my whole section is standing. The chorus, “I’ll meet you in the car on the corner / but you’re never gonna change my mind,” is sung loudly by fans on the floor.
The foundation of their sound lies in minimal guitar progressions, interspersed with atypical lead lines that back melodic, high-range vocals layered over fast, shuffling drums and airy synths. The choice to forgo a bass player keeps the vocals and guitars front and centre, making the moments where the guitar digs in with a heavier tone hit even harder.
These elements are on full display when they play Moody, an exceptional track off the new album that blends a grunge-inspired acoustic progression with a lamenting vocal melody: “she’s always givin’ it to me / late nights she’s always accusing.”
Otis, on lead guitar, crouches down in front of his pedalboard, adjusting his tone as they lead into Kool Aid—a moment rarely seen at the large, heavily stage-managed gigs Margaret Court usually hosts. Across the arena, under strobing lights, everyone is now up dancing.
After a well-placed heavy guitar solo in More to Lose, the band briefly leaves the stage. Moments later, Royel and Otis reappear on a small platform in the middle of the crowd to perform their seminal acoustic cover of Linger. The crowd erupts, phones come out, and the arena sings along in unison. I heard a recent interview where they said they hoped this album would give them enough songs to “never play another cover again,” but the crowd, at least, loved every second of it.
Following the Linger interlude, the full band returns for Bull Breed. The lights dim and the stage glows in an industrial red hue as Royel leans into the crowd, one foot on the foldback speaker, gripping the mic stand and belting into the room.
The show feels visually cohesive, with lowercase Helvetica phrases lighting up the screen throughout, clearly taking aesthetic cues from Charli XCX’s brat. These are interspersed with scenes of young people in high-waisted jeans kissing by lakes and walking through fields, evoking Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2021 film Licorice Pizza.
They announce their final song of the night, launching into Say Something before briefly exiting and returning for an encore of their most popular track, Oysters in My Pocket. They thank the crowd to rapturous applause, calling it “the biggest gig we’ve ever played,” before Otis steps down into the front row to hand out guitar picks to some of their most devoted fans.