TigerBomb
Hi Fi – Leeds - UK
Friday 1st February 2008
http://www.myspace.com/tigerbombuk

I really should have been snug warm at home with a cup of tea and a DVD, but instead I braved the near arctic Yorkshire weather to arrive at Leeds Hi Fi to see Tiger Bomb. It had been a long time since I’d been so excited about seeing a new band. I’d caught Tiger Bomb for the first time at a venue in Bradford a few days earlier and was immediately intrigued. You just can’t ignore a band with such an eclectic range of instruments. Trumpet, glockenspiel and cello all feature on their CD “Not on My Mountain� and I was eager to hear more from these guys. I wasn’t to be disappointed.

They certainly have an unusual sound, unlike anything I have heard before. To compare them to other bands for a point of reference would be misleading. They flip their style so smoothly without losing any of their own inimitable character, making me smile each time they do as I’m surprised by each clever little sweep. I don’t know how they do it! It could have something to do with the fact that most of the band are music academics and have been playing together since they were in their pre-teen years. It could be that they don’t try to fit into a predictable marketable niche. (I heard that Dan the Front-man refuses to write the catchy pop tune everyone knows he could.) It could be that these guys just really enjoy doing their own thing. Who knows? Who cares? Just keep it coming!

What really strikes me about this band is that everything they do just WORKS. The arrangement is tight and clever. They don’t overuse the trumpet or any of the keyboard effects; they are not a gimmick. It feels like we are being teased and left wanting more each time you hear them. The band’s style isn’t at all contrived but not many could pull it off as well as they do. They look good, but not as we know it. But in today’s plastic and manufactured music industry such innovation is not a marketable commodity.



Unbelievably, Tiger Bomb are not yet signed. Festival organisers don’t really know what to do with them and they are not part of the boring cliques which make up the UK music scene. It appears that for a band to be marketable they need to be part of an already popular genre and innovative bands such as Tiger Bomb are reluctant to conform. Whist the mainstream music channels are chock full of predictable greyscale banality, the really interesting artists are to be found playing small venues. All I can hope is that in a few years time I’ll be boasting about having a drink and a laugh with the guys from Tiger Bomb. These guys really deserve to make it big.

Set list below the jump.