I Just Read About That…

[POSTPONED: July 18, 2020] Tigers Jaw

Back in 2020, Tigers Jaw was scheduled to play a show in Garwood at a place called Crossroads.  I had never heard of Crossroads, but there was a flyer in the local Jersey Mike’s.  I was intrigued because I knew a little about Tigers Jaw and I liked what I’d heard.

Then those shows were cancelled and eventually, they came touring around and I saw them at Union Transfer–a sold out show.

They were supposed to open for Circa Survive in February and March, but that tour was cancelled at the last minute, so Tigers Jaw decided to do a small tour of their own called The Last Minute Magic Tour.  And so they finally made it to Crossroads.

The venue was great–excellent sound, great sight lines.  It holds about 200 people.  I assume it sold out–but what a difference from Union Transfer.

The crowd was 100% fans of the band and it started out fun and chill.  But there was one guy who was insistent on starting a pit.  At first people kind of ignored him, but by the end there was some serious moshing around in an uncontrolled way–I got almost knocked down once.

Tigers Jaw has a fairly tumultuous history.  At one point everyone in  the band left except for Ben Walsh and Brianna Collins.  They added more members and built up the band to what they are now–a powerful five piece.

They opened with the opening song from the new album, which starts with just Ben singing and playing acoustic guitar.  But about half way through the song opens up and bit and he switched to electric guitar and the band turned up their poppy punk senses.

They played a lot of songs from the new album.  Ben explained that they put out the album and then neve got to tour it.  And then they were supposed to tour with Circa Survive, but that tour was cancelled last minute.  So they hastily put together this Last Minute Magic tour.

Brianna sang “June” next, it’s a lovely mellow song with a terrific melody.

The crowd knew the words to all the songs but they definitely reacted more strongly to the older ones.  When they played “I Saw Water,” the guy who wanted to dance started up a one man mosh pit.  The people around him were none too please, but he kept it up, hoping someone would join in, but no one did.

As the show progressed (and people got drunker) more people started singing along very loudly.  And other people did start dancing as well.  So by the end of the set there was a lot of pushing and shoving.

The setlist listed sixteen songs.  When they were done, we kind of assumed they’d play more.  Crossroads doesn’t have a backstage exactly, so the band kind of huddled at the back of  the stage deciding what to play for an encore. They played two more songs.

wow, these songs must be the big hits because the crowd went berserk.  The slam dancing was out of control.  Everyone pushed to the front to scream the lyrics to “Plane vs. Tank vs. Submarine ”

And holy cow, for “The Sun,” it was like a frenzy of love for the band.  You could tell the band fed off the energy in a big way.

I feel like they could have played for another hour, the fans were so into it.  But I was kind of glad the set was relatively short (about an hour), as it let me get home pretty early.

I don’t understand why they aren’t a bigger band.  Their songs are catchy and their fans are passionate.

SETLIST

1. I Won’t Care How You Remember Me ⊗
2. June §
3. I Saw Water ¥
4. Cat’s Cradle ⊗
5. Hesitation ⊗
6. Chemicals ¥
7. Can’t Wait Forever ⊗
8. Hum ©
9. Slow Come On ©
10. Commit ⊗
11. Test Pattern ≠
12. Frame You ©
13. Never Wanted To ⊗
14. Never Saw It Coming ¥
15. Warn Me (single)
16. Anniversary ⊗
    encore
17. Plane vs. Tank vs. Submarine ¥
18. The Sun ß

ß Belongs to the Dead (2006)
¥ Tigers Jaw (2008)
≠ Two Worlds (2010)
© Charmer (2014)
§ Spin (2017)
Warn Me single (2020)
⊗ I Won’t Care How You Remember Me (2021)

The previous show was an album release for I Won’t Care How You Remember Me.  The first set was the entire album.  The second set was a greatest hits kind of show.  But no one wrote down the setlist so I don’t know what they played.

SET ONE (2021)

1. “I Won’t Care How You Remember Me”
2. “Cat’s Cradle”
3. “Hesitation”
4. “New Detroit”
5. “Can’t Wait Forever”
6. “Lemon Mouth”
7. “Body Language”
8. “Commit”
9. “Never Wanted To”
10. “Heaven Apart”
11. “Anniversary”