Motopony At The Troubadour, Thursday June 18th 2015 Review
Motopony
On Thursday night, Motopony took the stage at the Troubadour with a rare passion. They are a band from Seattle, and they were a lot on stage with many guitars — a rare thing these days when everyone is turning electronic — and they installed a sort of hippie-gypsy ambiance with felt hats, small boots and dream-catcher necklaces or whatever this thing was. But one thing is sure, they had worked on their looks and wanted to make an impression … However, it was the presence of their charismatic frontman, Daniel Blue, who seemed to be the center of attraction, and the many young girls around me had only eyes for him. He vaguely reminded me of Alex Ebert (frontman of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros) in the intense way he was performing, often putting his arms in the air, singing in a high voice, the kind of guy who could make you believe that the last prophet is reincarnated in a hippie, leading his band through music and a lot of charisma.
‘I just called it Motopony and never got off the train,’ said Blue in an interview. ‘I didn’t know where it was going, but I felt guided and felt a singularity of purpose, and eventually I found my voice.’
Their music was a bit all over the place, but certainly led by a sort of psychedelic pop-folk with a modern R&B-synth twist, very dance-y, and bringing this old hippies-with-tambourines feeling into a more modern setting. But it was for the most part epic and psychic, with song titles such as ‘Gypsy Woman’ – during which Daniel Blue invited a few girls on stage to dance their heart out – and the upbeat ‘1971’ which had a screaming poppy chorus with an almost Sgt. Pepper’s catchiness. In a funny move, Blue dedicated a song entitled ‘Changing’ to the Jenner family, and they were not done with crowd participation since they invited even more people to get on stage for their last song, which sounded like an epic psychedelic gospel. I guess most of the songs they did will be featured on their upcoming album ‘Welcome You’ set to be released on June 23rd via eOne Music / Fast Plastic, and since it’s not out at the moment I am writing this, I can’t listen to these new songs again. but Motopony’s show was a sweaty high-energy fest on Thursday night at the Troubadour, a powerful peace-and-love party that brought the tambourines very high without playing the nostalgia part too much. That’s why you should catch them during one of their shows, as they are touring all summer long to promote their album.
