#thehaunt

I recently went to see Palaye Royale perform at the Gramercy Theater here in NYC, and it sure was a trip. The whole event kicked off with a VIP session with the band where attendees would get to go to a signing, do a Q&A and photos with the band. I definitely felt everyone’s excitement just from waiting in line an hour and a half prior to the start of VIP, unfortunately their singer, Remington Leith and brother/drummer Emerson Barrett were both sick so they wore medical masks. Nonetheless, the whole band still did the whole round of VIP activities and was a pleasure to meet even for a brief minute.

The venue was packed, it was their third night in a row selling out tickets on this “Final Boom” tour, where they’ll be closing off touring with their duo albums of “Boom Boom Room Side A” and “Side B”.

The first band to open up surprised me; they were a 4-piece group ages 15-20(ish) from Florida called “The Haunt”. I have to mention that their guitarists’ little sister was their singer and she was only 15, but the maturity and quality of her performance and voice was beyond her years. They kicked off the night with high energy and fans definitely were excited to see them as well. For a pretty young band, they were very impressive onstage.  The next two bands “The Dead Poseys” and “Bones” also did a fantastic job at keeping the audience engaged, the anticipation was boiling in the crowd.

Palaye Royale’s performance was definitely high energy. Which was surprising considering the singer and drummer were sick, they still performed as if nothing was wrong. They kicked off the set with their song “Don’t Feel Quite Right” and ended with a song from their latest album “You’ll Be Fine” which I found ironic. They even played a tribute to their favorite band/crowd fave, My Chemical Romance’s “Teenagers” which seemed fitting. I was surprised to see the target demographic of this band be mainly 12-16 year old girls, often chaperoned by older siblings or parents and groups of friends. The fan base for Palaye is ridiculously dedicated to the band. I could hear them talking about anything and everything they knew about the guys through out the night. It was nice to see younger fans be into rock bands and even engage with each other during these shows and make new friends. It’s safe to say Palaye Royale isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.