music mule.co.uk

You can’t get much for $5 in New York but somehow that was the going rate at the Tigercity gig in Webster Hall last night. If you’re working on a pleasure to dollar scale it was by far the best gig I’ve ever been to. On any scale anywhere, it was definitely top-three.

First though, an honourable mention for London five-piece Operahouse who opened the night and went down well with tracks from their Muse-y, synth tinged EP ‘Escape from the Sun’. Frontman Johnny Lloyd held masterful control of their un-sound checked performance but the overall effect was kind of like eating Cadbury’s abroad- always a pleasure but nothing brilliantly new. That said, they’ll no doubt catch this Mule’s eye at SXSW next month and you folk can see them at Water Rats on 3 Mar.

But back to el Tigre. Bill (plus wonderful beard), Joel, Ainsley and Andrew looked a little weary as they set up, negotiated keyboard dramas and surveyed the chatty crowd before launching into ‘Other Girls’. Immediately the chatters were silenced and the SLR mafia (the sign of any BotM (Band of the Moment)) started their god damn snapping. Gillim’s flirty but intense voice flitted away any annoyance though and soon it was enthusiastic head nodding all round. The Bee Gee jokes are fair but it’s pure talent not trick that hits those notes.

Unlike the album, which you play as the soundtrack of a good day or pick me up on a bad, the band are serious, almost angsty live and you realise you’re not on a sunshine beach in 1984 but in a beautifully crafted, honest open-book. Multi-layers galore. ‘Mallory’ stood out for spine-tingles and ‘Are you Sensation’ was the perfect way to close. Minus two for missing out ‘Solitary Man’ however.

Tigercity are playing their first European dates in Poland this April and that ain’t so very far. $5 or not, I promise you’ll be in for a treat.

mp3: Tigercity – Are You Sensation

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