After coming off of a pretty short-lived hiatus, Tigers Jaw is spending their summer touring after dropping their newest album, Charmer. In the meantime, I’m spending mine soaking in every single chord. While I would have fan-girled over speaking to them at their show with Dads and Touché Amore in Sacramento, I’ll settle for doing a show/album review... For now.

 

The former five piece has recently underwent some life threatening - so to speak - changes, and is now a solid two piece consisting of Brianna 

Collins and Ben Walsh, and is alive and very well. They’ve filled the lineup in with Elliot Babin (Touché Amore, Dad Punchers) on drums, Luke Schwartz (Make Do and Mend, Loose Planes) on bass, and Jake Woodruff (Defeater, Dreamtigers) playing guitar. You would never even know from the excellent chemistry on stage that they had even dealt with such a big change; they were so close to perfect it almost brought a tear to my eye.

 

Charmer has some Internet favorites including “Distress Signal” as well as some new material, like my personal favorite “Hum,” which showcases some outstanding lead vocals from Ms. Collins. I was looking forward to hearing that song all night, and I was a little surprised when Ben Walsh sang along, but it was pretty sick nonetheless.

 

While they played a majority of the new album, they also played some old favorites like “Plane Vs. Tank Vs. Submarine,” “I Saw Water,” and “Jet Alone.” It was a very well balanced set in my opinion. The crowd’s energy made the show super solid, one of the best I’ve seen so far this summer, and ranked in my top 10 of all time. Even with the little bit of tension left over from other touring band, Dads’ set. Hecklers are enough to piss anyone off, especially when the band is trying to connect with the crowd and there’s that one guy screaming to them that ‘no one cares.’ Also, fear from the Pity Sex tour a couple weeks earlier that a seemingly innocent stage diver might try to kiss Ms. Collins… again.

 

PSA: it’s not cool, don’t try to kiss people on stage, or anyone, without their consent.

 

However, hecklers seemed to keep their yaps closed during T.J.’s set, only good things were interjected between songs, and Mr. Walsh was quick to reciprocate compliments. The only complaint I can conjure is that even though the venue was pretty large and open, it was so hot it felt like a basement show, but is that really even a complaint?

 

On a lighter note, though, in some interviews Brianna Collins has mentioned looking forward to writing more material for the ever-popular indie-punk band. I’m assuming that’s when they can get more time than a day off on tour. I’m so looking forward to hearing it, and adding yet another vinyl to the growing collection I already have, as well as hopefully speaking with them in the very near future.