Tiger Army's live show is previewed by Reuters.com!
Los Angeles (Hollywood Reporter) - Every decade or so, rockabilly seems to reinvent itself, and Tiger Army is at the forefront of the latest variation.
Clearly, the Los Angeles-based trio is doing something right, selling out three nights during the weekend at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip.
The band showed that it was built for speed during Friday's opening date with a brisk one-hour set featuring songs from its current Hellcat album "III: Ghost Tigers Rise." The happy mayhem on the packed dance floor recalled slam dancing from punk rock days of yore rather than standard tribal moshing; the crowd included ardent fans with spiky, multihued hair and artsy tattoos.
Singer-guitarist Nick 13 formed Tiger Army nine years ago. The lineup has changed frequently and currently includes Jeff Roffredo on stand-up acoustic bass and James Meza on drums. They make quite a racket yet play with stop-on-a-dime precision.
The band's style has been touted as psychobilly; its manic pace should not to be confused with the horrorbilly theatrics of the veteran Cramps. But Tiger Army really draws on all forms of rockabilly past and injects ample doses of punk rock abandon, coming from a place where Gene Vincent, the pre-hit Stray Cats and L.A.'s own X meet.
Many of the numbers were delivered at a breakneck speed even faster than on the group's records. The band ripped through the older "When the Night Comes Down" and "The Power of Moonlight" as well as the current's release's anthemlike "Ghost Tigers Rise" and the challenging "What Happens?"
The music wasn't chaotic; it was the sound of a joyride in a stolen hot rod. With his resonant vocals, Nick 13 is actually more of a crooner raving it up, which also speaks well for the band's future.
This is a tiger that can change its stripes. The trio proved to be more than just stylists, especially in "Through the Darkness," a slice of bittersweet pop that found Nick 13 channeling Rick Nelson, and "Rose of the Devil's Garden," which owed more to Morrissey melancholy and the Smiths than, say, Johnny Burnette.
The band certainly acknowledged its musical forefathers, going back nearly 50 years for a dead-on cover of Eddie Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock."
Tiger Army roars and rocks as all cool hepcats of any era should.
By Darryl Morden
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