Saint Motel at Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (13 October 2016)

Weathers

Opening the show was Los Angeles’ Weathers with a brief 30-minute set. The indie-pop band currently only has two songs available for purchase (‘Happy Pills’ and ‘I Don’t Wanna Know’), which, of course, they played to the crowd.



The rest of the titles on their setlist, which I’ve compiled, may or may not be the actual title once they release them. The four-piece (singer/rhythm guitar Cameron Boyer, guitarist Cameron Olsen, drummer Cole Carson, and bassist Brennen Bates) generally seemed pleased to be on this “Ones To Watch” tour. Based on how the young band handled the crowd and especially if they land another hit (‘Happy Pills’ was the number one added song on Alternative Radio), expect the band to be on everyone’s hit list next year. Very glad to have caught the band when they are just developing.

Jr Jr

Jr Jr was up next. The band was previously known as Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., and the duo (Joshua Epstein & Daniel Zott) wasted no time storming the stage at exactly 8:30pm.



The band was dressed in all gold glittery outfits, and they explained that, like the Golden Girls, they were less intimated and trying to promote fun. With that said, they medley in a cover of The Temptations’ ‘My Girl’… a fitting song, as the band is actually from old school “Motor Town” Detroit (Motown).



The band was actually between albums, so they tested some new material for us for the rest of the set. One of the songs actually existed as a demo, but when someone broke into their tour van and stole their computer with the demos, they had to re-write and re-work those songs.



Near the end of their set, they realized they had enough time to play two more songs… so they asked the audience to help them pick the next songs. Someone shouted ‘Gone’, which they immediately replied, “Of course we’re going to play ‘Gone’!”



They eventually heard ‘Simple Girl’, which is an older song. After ‘Simple Girl’, of course, of course, of course, ‘Gone’ closed out their set.



When we first saw Saint Motel ( A/J Jackson, Aaron Sharp, Greg Erwin, and Dak Lerdamornpong) opened up for Arctic Monkeys in 2014, they blew us away: “Like I said, Saint Motel has a lot of potential, and the band is taking advantage of all the sold out Arctic Monkeys shows to play their very best on stage.”



The L.A.-based band seemed thrilled to be back in town, especially for singer A/J, as we have previously mentioned, was his hometown. A lot has changed since A/J was last in town, but the city was still as friendly and welcomingly as ever… as fans welcome the band with open hearts.



The band mostly stuck to their new, forthcoming album saintmotelevision (set for release October 21st via Elektra Records), but did play some old favorites from their 2012 debut Voyeur, including ‘Feed Me Now’ and ‘Benny Goodman’.



Remaining Tour Dates