Staff Editor on January 26th, 2020

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Saint Motel turned the first night of their 2020 tour, titled “The Motion Picture Show,” into a spectacle on Friday night at the sold-out Observatory.

The L.A. quartet in October released the first installment of their new album, an EP titled “The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, Pt. 1.” The five-song release arrived with slick videos for each song, and Friday’s show — which featured costume and set design changes for each “scene” — was equally cinematic. Singer A/J Jackson arrived onstage in a giant raft disguised as a rocketship, for instance, and crowd-surfed in it.

Saint Motel played all five songs from the new release and packed in songs from almost all their releases, with their biggest single “My Type” putting an exclamation point on a night that included “Cold Cold Man, ” “For Elise,” “Sweet Talk,” “Puzzle Pieces” and “Move.” By the time they played that final song, the entire crowd was a synchronized dancing machine.

Husband-and-wife duo KOLARS proved a perfect complement to Saint Motel’s high-energy show — the duo set the bar high for what would be an electric night.

Saint Motel’s tour circumnavigates the country before arriving back at the Fonda Theatre for dates March 7 and March 8. KOLARS opens both those shows as well.

Setlist: Cold Cold Man, Diane Mozart, For Elise, Sweet Talk, Sisters, Dear Dictator, Destroyer, Puzzle Pieces, Move, Save Me, Old Soul, To My Enemies, Born Again, Van Horn, My Type.

Photos by Bryan Greenberg