Tigress, DETER, Gen and the Degenerates: Jacaranda Phase One, Liverpool

Tigress

Tigress power through a classy lesson in how to do rock, Getintothis’ Peter Goodbody is all ears at Phase One.

Fresh off support slots with Bring Me The Horizon and Enter Shikari, this mini 5 date tour is a chance for Tigress to shine with their own headline shows.

With recent EP Who Cares fresh off the mixing desk and a rising profile, Tigress are starting to get noticed.

Phase One is seemingly the ideal place for this kind of 2019 version of a punkish line up with DETER and Gen and the Degenerates as supports. It may be a Tuesday night, but this has promise.

We arrive towards the end of Gen and the Degenerates’ set to find herself bouncing up and down on the stage.

“Thanks for having us, I think I might have broken a rib”. We can we’ll believe it from the the ever effervescent Gen. It’s lively, that’s for sure. And raucous. All good.

Glasgow’s DETER are the support for the whole tour.

And we can well see why. It’s power emo kind of punk meets Taking Back Sunday and it’s great.

But it’s a running sore here at Getintothis when the heads who turn up to see the early support don’t stay to see the rest of the bill. That’s what happens again tonight and DETER are playing to a ridiculously sparse room.

It’s a real shame because they deserve better. Those that stay are fans, though. We know that because they are either already sporting DETER t-shirts, or they have clearly been won over by a band whose young age belies the maturity of their material.

They are equally at home rocking out as they are at the more measured, slower, numbers.

Although they finish the set with probably the heaviest number of the lot – no surprise – that even sees an attempt at a mosh pit, but it’s not gonna work with just a handful of loyal adherents.

Half an hour was enough for DETER to make their mark on night and they did a fine job of it.

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Tigress bring a few more bodies into the room.

They have all the moves and all the swagger. Duelling guitars, feet on the monitors, axe wielding. It’s all there. Lean back and play a guitar solo. Check. Two guitars head banging in unison. Check. “Alright, we’re gonna slow it down”. Check.

It’s refreshing to see a band who have some understanding about how to look good and how to work a stage. There are white neon lights around the monitors, too. It’s all done for effect, but we want to be entertained and tonight we get just that.

This is a band who are not only worthy of a bigger stage, but one who actually don’t seem to understand how modestly sized is this one.

The sound is huge. The attitude is huge. It’s just a shame the same can’t be said for the audience. They’re enthusiastic enough, but there just isn’t much of an atmosphere.

Tigress are doing their best, undaunted and it’s a pretty flawless set of post punk / rock crossover. File on the shelf alongside your Hands Off Gretel CDs and there won’t be a fight after you’ve turned the lights out.

Amongst the heaviness of the bulk of the set, there was a huge curveball when Katy announced the next song was a cover. Of Massive Attack’s Teardrop. Now, that was unexpected. And only minimal use of a keyboard. An absolute highlight and a real leftfield take on how to cover a song like that with guitar, bass and drums. Superb.

From there, the mood of the set drops down a notch. “This is a new one – it’s nameless”. It’s an arresting ballad-ish number. Followed by Shockwave, which has a similar feel.

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The band bows out with their first single, Alive and then Bring Me Down both of which, naturally, ramp the dials back up to 11.

They leave on a high. And we’re all quite happy. Top night.

Final nod to Salvation Jayne who were also on this bill, but had to pull out due to illness. We hope there’s a speedy recovery.

Images by Getintothis’ Peter Goodbody and Jenn Cliff-Wilcock