“If they start playing that song, I’ll literally start crying,” I heard a young woman in the crowd say. By “they”, we’re talking about on-the-rise Australian indie pop duo Royel Otis who sold out the Amsterdam Bar and Hall in St. Paul on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. “That song” would be referring to their Like A Version cover of Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Murder on the Dancefloor which went viral and boosted their popularity right into the mainstream. The venue, usually doubling as a restaurant and bar, had cleared out a significant portion of its tables to accommodate the swelling crowd for the concert.
Opening for the night was fellow Aussie rockers Girl and Girl, a Queensland-based indie/alt-rock group with bounds of energy and an awesome stage presence – pretty much the secret ingredients to putting on a fun and engaging show. During their performance, the band unabashedly trashed about the stage. A group of 20-somethings were really getting into the music with them, to where it was actually difficult to tell who was having more fun – the band or the people in the crowd. The crowd cheered as the group finished up their set, but at the same time, I felt a collective push forward toward the stage. It was time for the main act.
