Twin Tigers + Sandman Viper Command @ Le Divan Orange

Coming in off a freezing rue St-Laurent around 11pm, we entered Le Divan Orange, a warm venue laid with old wooden floors and a high room. As soon as we came in, we noticed the place was pretty empty. Well... it was more than pretty empty; in fact, there were about 15 people there in total, 8 of which were members of the bands playing. Claiming the space under the beautiful, graffiti-esque mural painted on the wall to our immediate right, we sat and waited as the opening band jumped on stage for the usual pre-show preparatory strumming and plucking.

The opener, a Burlington, Ontario band by the name of Sandman Viper Command, is comprised of four best friends: Dan Reardon, Aaron Harvey, Matt Meyer and frontman Rob Janson. They came out with an album called Everybody See This in 2009 that was relatively well received. With driven guitars and amazing production value, the album as a whole is filled with fantastic tracks and is perhaps one of the top ten albums I have heard this year. All in all, it’s totally worth the ten dollars.  Obviously, others have thought the same; Sandman Viper Command has played with Holy F*ck, The Rural Alberta Advantage, and the Arkells, among others.

As the soundcheck wound down, there was a 60 second silence as straps slid over heads and drummers got into place. Then, a wall of sound filled the long, narrow venue like a physical thing.  The sound balance was perfect; the vocals were clearly heard above the hazy but defined pop melodies. The guitars had awesome interwoven melodies, keeping the music interesting but consistent with a certain ‘sound’ that is easily equated with Sandman Viper Command.  With their slinky, driven dance beat, these guys are perfectly situated in either a basement party or a packed venue.

The vocals, though, were the stars. Frontman Rob Janson, who also plays guitar, serenaded the crowd with scratchy, endearing vocals that had most people in the crowd of (now) 11 dancing and bobbing along. The other guitarist and the bassist harmonized to produce a roughed-out sounding harmony that was both dirty and beautiful.

The stage was stripped down, bare, and perfect for the set, with only a red backlight and a blue light shining from the side to illuminate the stage. It did its job without distracting from the intimate show. The entire set was only about 40 minutes long, but with back-to-back songs it was forty minutes well spent.  Need-to-hear tracks are “Oh Yeah, It’s Fusion,” “Strawberry Quick” and  “The Metal I’ve Spent.”

Twin Tigers, who are from the American city of Athens, Georgia, are a band I had heard plenty about and was excited to see. Their album Gray Waves, released in 2010, has received a lot of buzz in North America from the lovers of the Indie/Shoe Gaze scene. With a trippy sound that is very reminiscent of Sonic Youth, it is a pretty great album. They’re a four piece band with mixed male and female vocals, consisting of members Matthew Rain, Aimee Morris (who met at the Grit restaurant owned by R.E.M. member Michael Stipe), Doug Crump and Forrest Hall.

When they took the stage, the first thing that I noticed wasn’t the sound, but the strobe light catching me full on in the face. Repeatedly. Although it was a neat idea, it severely distracted from what was actually going on on stage.  I ended up getting driven way to the back in an attempt to avoid either being blinded or seizing.

The show itself was a little lackluster after Sandman Viper Command. Although it did live up to its shoe gaze expectation in a way, I had a lot of trouble deciphering what song was what due to the lyrics being buried deep under the psychedelic haze of the instrumentals. There were a couple songs that stood out. “Red Fox Run” is a fantastic song, be it performed live or listened to on a CD.  It has the same psychedelic dreamy quality of their other stuff, but amplified.  Another great song was “Island,” with its exciting vocals and fantastic guitar.

The set was really short, only about 40 minutes.  Surprisingly, as the set ended and I looked around, there were no more people there for this set than for Sandman Viper Command.  This was both surprising and too bad, since Twin Tigers are not an unknown band and they had really only just started their Canadian tour days before. Although the show was a little mediocre, it would be unfair to write them off just yet. They were a tight unit who sounded very close to having a great live show, if only the sound was tinkered with a little and the strobe lights were used for accent rather than legitimate light source.