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ROYEL OTIS
+ Florence Road
@ The Fortitude Music Hall,
Brisbane,
20th October 2025 
(Live Review)

Review by Audrey Songvilay

Photos (Melbourne) by Tom Mullins (@tommullinsphoto)

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Photo – @tommullinsphoto

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Royel Otis played The Fortitude Music Hall last night in Brisbane, and I couldn’t stop thinking about all the things I needed someone to just say. And now you have me in my head, and all I want to do is call you out.

It’s from their song “Say Something” – the one that lingers like an accusation long after it ends.

For this review, I’ll take their lead. No more hiding behind cryptic lines. I’ll call it out. Every feeling, every ghost that followed me into the crowd.

Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic make up the duo Royel Otis, an Australian indie-pop act that somehow captures the strange ache of growing up, falling apart, and unspoken words.

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Photo – @tommullinsphoto

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They opened with the sugar-slow hurt of “I Hate This Tune,” and almost immediately, the crowd began to sway. A phone lit up. Somewhere in the crowd, you could hear someone singing. Maddell’s guitar threads through Pavlovic’s voice. The band folds itself into that rare kind of looseness that still holds everything important in place.

Whoever produced this show deserves an ovation. The lighting, the pacing, the projection, all of it deliberate, and cinematic. Lights enhanced the atmosphere, not as decoration but as translation. The screen flickered with small, intimate betrayals of names, inside jokes, and one-liners that could’ve been stolen from someone’s notes app.

The set moved with a kind of effortless pull. Some songs were soft and aching. “Adored,” “Heading for the Door,” “Foam.” Their cover of “Linger” by The Cranberries had the whole room singing along. Then “Murder on the Dancefloor” hit. Cheeky, euphoric, perfectly timed with Saltburn’s lingering afterglow. It’s no wonder it climbed to number one on the US alternative charts. Hearing it live was pure catharsis. A therapy session disguised as disco. And, not for the first time, I thought about how public grief now wears party clothes.

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Photo – @tommullinsphoto

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Then came “Sofa King.” On screen, the words “Brisbane, you’re so fucking gorgeous” flashed before cycling through a carousel of names. “Zachary, you’re so fucking gorgeous,” and countless more. Quite intimate if you happened to spot a name you knew.

And yet, the centre of gravity tonight was “Say Something.” A track from their latest album, Hickey, which delves into the complexities of unspoken emotions and the weight of silence in relationships. That song does something to you, it demands reflection. You can feel it press against old words left unsent.

Like I said before: no more cryptic messages. I want to call it out.

There are people you never get to confront, only write around. Silence becomes their last word, leaving a bruise you carry quietly. It spilt something in me, because I know that ache. The hunger for truth, for something finally said. I didn’t sing along. I just listened, thinking about how avoidance can masquerade as kindness, how freedom can sound a lot like fear when it walks away without a reason.

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Photo – @tommullinsphoto

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The words sank into the music, and my mind went to you. Funny how that works? Even when I’m not writing about you, it ends up about you anyway. Maybe it’s nothing. Maybe it’s everything. Writers notice these things.

“Oysters in My Pocket” closed the night, everyone was singing, dancing, letting themselves go.

When the lights came up, everyone walked out. Which makes me wonder if catharsis is just another word for exhaustion?

Royel Otis is a band for hearts that break easily but love obstinately. Somewhere between silence and reverb, that line loops again: Now you have me in my head, and all I want to do is call you out.

Maybe that’s all any of us want? For someone, finally, to say something.

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Photo – @tommullinsphoto

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Check out Tom Mullins’ (@tommullinsphoto) full gallery of the Melbourne event HERE

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Photo – @tommullinsphoto

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Follow ROYEL OTIS: 
​Website – Facebook – Instagram
 X – TikTok – YouTube
 Spotify – Apple Music  

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Photo – @tommullinsphoto

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Press Release 30th July 2025 (below) HERE

ROYEL OTIS
announce Irish band
FLORENCE ROAD
as special guest for
their October tour

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AMNPLIFY – DB