Images: Tiger Army, Stellar Corpses, Delta Bombers April 16, 2016 at the House of Blues

Pompadours and pinups descended on Las Vegas over last weekend to celebrate the annual Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend.  Among the many shows to choose from I decided to checkout Tiger Army at the House of Blues.  They’re not a band that’s usually heavy in my musical rotation, but I’ve always enjoyed their many contributions to the Give Em the Boot comps.

The sharply dressed band hit the stage in matching short-sleeve white shirts and slacks quite possibly on loan from The Book of Mormon, then jumped into the anthemic  “Ghost Tigers Rise,” before riding into “Afterworld.”  I say riding because bassist Djordje Stijepovic literally was riding his upright bass like a horse, a move he used several times throughout their set.

In preparation for the show I gave myself a quick refresher on Spotify of the band’s music, and was surprised to see that they haven’t had a full-length release since 2007.   However, as teased several times by frontman Nick 13, the new Tiger Army music drought was coming to an end.  Three new songs were performed, “Prisoner of the Night,” “Firefall,” and “Dark and Lonely Night,” a vintage sounding song that would’ve fit in perfectly in the Back to the Future Enchantment Under the Sea dance.   We were also treated to three cover songs: Eddie Cochran’s “Twenty Flight Rock,” Link Wray’s “Rumble” and “His Latest Flame” by the Viva Las Vegas King himself Elvis Presley.

The House of Blues was quite full on both floors with Viva attendees, and the by the end of the circle-pit for “FTW,” the crowd had heated the venue up to what can best be described as “locker-room warm.” Perhaps that was the intention, as the many pinup girls in the crowd were already prepared with folding fans as if a fortune teller had warned them it was going to happen.   By the end of the long five-song encore, which concluded with with “Sea of Fire,” I wished I had one of those fans myself and regretted my decision to not wear a sleeveless t-shirt to the show.  However, the show was great, the band sounded terrific, and I can’t wait to check out the new album V… out May 20th.

Between the guitarist’s devil-lock hair cut, morbid cartoon lyrics,  and frequent woahs, Santa Cruz’s Stellar Corpses strongly reminded me of Black Sails in the Sunset era AFI.  I loved that era of AFI, and the crowd seemed to agree by singing and dancing along to songs like “Cemetary Man” and “Leave a Stellar Corpse.”

Opening the show was locals The Delta Bombers.  Apparently it was their first time getting to play the House of Blues, and the band seemed pretty excited – but you’d never know it from how comfortable they were on stage.  The group’s originals like “I Wanna Get Drunk by Myself,” as well as covers of  CCR’s “Run Through the Jungle,” and The Lively One’s “Surf Rider” were a perfect fit for the Viva crowd. (Sidenote: was it Pulp Fiction soundtrack cover night?)

-Aaron Mattern |https://www.flickr.com/photos/akmofoto/