BrightestYoungThings: LiveDC: Tigercity/ Bear In Heaven @ DC9

all photos: Shauna Alexander
all words: Svetlana

Another Tuesday, another Tigercity show in DC, another opportunity for me to ask: WHY? Why are they not famous yet?
But-lets start at the beginning, as always:

Bear in Heaven opened. They have a good to great new record out, with a couple of really stand-out tracks and I have never seen them live before and was excited. They opened up aggressively and the vocal effect almost made me hide under my scarf, because, frankly, I was not prepared. I wanted them to take me in their hands and gently lull me into the peace and quiet of their record, but live, it is a different story. It's gone bone structure we're working with here guys, lets just soften up the flesh and flash a little.

Still, "Lovesick teenagers" and "Wholehearted mess" sounded great, the bass player had a rather excellent mustache, the vocal dramatics toned down in the second half of the set, and as Jason said: "It is always good to see these bands and say you saw them grow". Keep an eye out for them.

Then, you guys, Tigercity came on.
I have said this before and I will say it again: for my imaginary, rollerskating, 14th birthday party present, I don't want a pony, I just want Tigercity to play.
They opened up with "Ancient Lover" which is probably, also, the most aggressive of their tracks, but then as the set progressed, they settled into a nice groove sliding seamlessly from "Fake Gold" to "Are you Sensation" and those hyper-falsetto back-up vocals were sounding as crisp as ever.

Tigercity has been touring pretty much non-stop for the last 2 years and it shows.
The know how to start a party, work their way in the middle of it all, and then, in a positive burst of keyboard magic close out with a very polished sounding double whammy of "Let her go" (which, I am not ashamed to admit, was my myspace profile song for most of 2007) and "Other Girls".

By the time "its everything that other girls doooooooooooo......" chorus washed over the crowd, everyone in that room was a fan. EVERYONE. And not because they figured it was cool or smart or someone told them that they should love this band, but because Tigercity makes you feel the exact way music should: happy, non-threatened, on an imaginary pleasure cruise somewhere and ready to shimmy and sing along all at once.