Tiger
Army claws, strikes heart of Anaheim
By
Brigid McGuire
Online Forty-Niner
Diversions Editor
As I walked through the streets of the “Happiest Place on Earth,” I
start to notice the people around me weren’t your normal camera-touting
tourists. In fact, I felt as if I may have stepped back into the days of James
Dean and car hopping. All the boys had slicked back hair, black t-shirts and
rolled up jeans.
Even though I was wearing a dress, I still felt under dressed as girls walked
with their hair put up like little Betty Paiges and in their pumped heels.
This was the scene on the streets of Downtown Disney, Feb. 2, the night Tiger
Army sold out the House of Blues.
The opening band was Black Rose Phantoms, a psycho-billy quartet with a mix
of hardcore and screaming. The lead singer held the crowd in amazement as he
ripped into his stand-up bass and played solos while he balanced on top of
it. One could tell the group was very young, with not even a professional CD
release to their name, but it felt as if they had the bones to go places.
The second opening band was the misplaced “screamo” group Take
the Crown. They crooned the large crowd with great keyboard harmonies, but
unfortunately that was not enough. The greaser-dressed crowd would have none
of them and kept trying to throw beer cups at them. Take the Crowd took it
all in stride and just blew kisses at them.
Then it was finally time. The lights dimmed and the curtains parted. The lead
singer, Nick 13, stole the show, and was covered head to toe in black. Standup
bass player Jeff Roffredo looked cool wearing a pair of dark shades the entire
show and James Meza ripped on drums.
Nick 13 opened the show with “Ghost Tigers Rise” and then merged
into “Ghostfire” from their latest studio album. Tiger Army has
been around for over 10 years and has released three studio albums. They have
had guest singers such as Davey Havok from AFI and Tim Armstrong from Rancid.
Tiger Army continued with“ Temptation” which according to their
MySpace.com Web site, they only played at this show.
The crowd erupted as the group played “Valley of Dreams” while
the members of Take the Crown were crowd surfing. Next the group went into “Santa
Clara Twilight,” but the crowd did not respond as well as they did to “Valley.”
Everyone sang along and circle pitted when “True Romance” was played
and even this writer was amazed at the energy from the room. The room was heavy
from all of the heat given off by the moving bodies and you couldn’t
help but move along to the crowd.
After playing their old favorites, the group broke out a new song, “LunaTone,” which
they have never played live before. The new song wasn’t as upbeat as
songs on their previous albums, but it showed potential for future bass slapping,
guitar solos and psycho-billy beats.
Overall, Tiger Army mostly played songs from its third studio album, “Ghost
Tigers Rise,” but one could tell any song from its first self-titled
album really got the crowd going.
Tiger Army continued its set with crowd favorites including “Outlaw Heart,” “Nocturnal” and “F.T.W.” During “F.T.W.” the
crowd went wild and started a huge dance circle and pumped their fists in the
air, as Nick 13 yelled out the chorus.
Nick 13 surprised everyone by playing the cover “Twenty Flight Rock,” by
Johnny Cochran. The group covered this song in its first album, but was never
performed live.
In the end, Tiger Army played “In the Orchard” as their encore,
which they have not played in five years, and promised the crowd its next studio
album would be out soon. I felt they should have played one more song for their
encore, but considering
“
In the Orchard” was such a musical treat, this writer will let that fly.
For more tour dates, check out www.tigerarmy.com.
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