I have seen Saint Motel a ridiculous number of times, and, as they were playing on the main stage at Make Music Pasadena, I decided to ditch the duo Tennis (who were playing at the same time) to see the Los Angeles band once more. I have to say that I had found a decent spot front row — a difficult task seeing the number of people attending the free festival — plus I have always felt a connection with these guys; at rock nyc we have followed them since the beginning and everyone should have seen the very large crowd packed in front of the stage on Saturday afternoon! Saint Motel is now a seven piece-band, horns and percussion included, and, while facing the bright hot sun, they gave an explosive set sprinkled with bouncy beach balls.
With crowd’s favorites like ‘Feed me Now’, ‘Honest Feedback’ and ‘Benny Goodman’, they set the tone for a feel-good summer-time, yes it was a beautiful day and the music was driving the crowd into a festive and playful mood… but I almost forgot, just before their set, a wedding proposal happened on stage, with every right step: the guy kneeling down, the ring in a little box! Some people never give up and it may have been the perfect setting for such a proposal, if you like these kinds of things to be public.
Saint Motel sure knows how to put up a show, they are excellent entertainers and they do it with style every time, the horn-sax section was bringing class into a music already dynamized by AJ Jackson’s vocals and omnipresent smile as well as the rest of the band’s overall energy. He announced a new album out in July – so we have to follow that one – and they played a new song, which sounded like their typical happy-explosive tune with some Saint Motel flair… Do they even have a sad one I thought? They played ‘Daydream/Wetdream/Nightmare’, which could pass for their melancholic one until it breaks into something different, a Beatles-que folksy-psychedelia sing-along ‘Don’t wake up, wake up, wake up’. At this point, the beach balls were raining down, while people were asking for water, and they received free water bottles from AJ and the band. Old songs like ‘Butch’ are always a sure success but honestly ‘Ace in the Hole’, ‘Puzzle Pieces’, ‘My Type’ were received with the same cheering from the crowd. They went wild with ‘Stories’, messing up a bit, rolling their backs on the stage as they often do. People were asking for ‘one more song’, and contrarily to Sylvan Esso we all know they have plenty more of them, but time is tight during festivals. Nevertheless, it was clear that the band could have gone on and on, they seemed to be so happy that they were throwing away stuff to the crowd, drumsticks, or the front cover (marked Saint Motel) of the drum set…
Saint Motel demonstrated once again that they are a mood-uplifting band, there is no doubt about this, you can’t feel blue when you see them! And they always do it with a genuine enthusiasm while staying chic and glam.
