Images: Touché Amoré, Tigers Jaw, Dads July 3, 2014 at Hard Rock Live

Being an oldhead with too many responsibilities often causes me to miss shows I’d love to see, particularly late night ones – so I was pretty pumped that the July 3^rd show headlined by California-based post-hardcore band Touché Amoré was scheduled to END just minutes after 8 p.m.

Since a salsa dancing party was scheduled directly following the gig, no punk time was used and Dads really did kick things off at the posted time of 5:30. Surprisingly, the venue was already filling up as they started, with many younger fans off for the summer and people like me celebrating the Independence Day holiday a few hours early. A few dozen emo fans crowded up front to watch the 2013 March Sadness Champions, who were performing as a three piece (Dads only has two official members – John Bradley on vocals and drums and Scott Scharinger on guitar and backing vocals.) It’s always interesting to see a drummer who also acts as lead vocalist. In some ways, it limits the crowd interaction you’re used to expecting from vocalists, but the few kids who knew the words to songs like “Boat Rich” and “Bakefast at Piffany’s” were eager to sing along and make up for Bradley being tied to the kit. The band has such a cool, deliberate pacing to their music, slowing building up emotion in each song, with themes of anxiety and shame coming together in an awesome display of controlled chaos. There’s a level of rambunctious urgency that musically reminds me a lot of 90s emo bands like Braid and Texas is the Reason, with a pinch of that unbridled passion found on those early Taking Back Sunday albums thrown in for good measure.

After a far too short set the band began tearing down their gear and I turned around to see that the audience had at least tripled in size as well as maybe quadrupling in kinetic energy. Tigers Jaw projects such a cool, collected image, but their fans were all smiles as kids hopped up front and began little mini sing alongs of their songs while the stage was being set. I was worried I’d never get to see Tigers Jaw after 3/5 of the band left after the completion of Charmer, but thankfully Ben Walsh and Brianna Collins decided to soldier on with guest musicians. Their set kicked off with “The Sun,” the opener to their eponymous album which had kids jumping over each other to shout “Pushing me away because you feel that I’m all the same” right back at the band. Tigers Jaw on this tour is rounded out by members of Touché Amoré, Loose Planes and Defeater who all did a great job making the songs really pop in the live setting. Older, more pop punk and emo influenced tracks like “I Saw Water” sounded great mixed with the more indie rock leaning songs from Charmer, with “Nervous Kids” and “Hum” from the latter getting a huge reaction. The new songs have a really nice blend of tortured harmonies ala Rumors-era Fleetwood Mac and the emotional intensity of Brand New’s Deja Entendu. It was cool seeing Collins sing lead in the track “Never Saw it Coming,” a song originally sung by ex-Tigers Jaw member Adam McIlwee, and Walsh commanded the biggest sing along of the night with ballad “Plane Vs Tank Vs Submarine.” Having never seen the band live before I was happy that the set was pretty evenly mixed and I can only hope the good response they received – including a good 10 minutes of fans shouting unsuccessfully for an encore – means they’ll make Vegas a recurring stop on future tours.

I wondered if things would clear out a bit after Tigers Jaw because I know a lot of kids came specifically for them, but the venue looked just as full when Touché Amoré took the stage and launched into “Amends,” the closer to their breakthrough album Parting the Sea Between Brightness & Me. Touché is one of my favorite live bands because of they way they feed off the crowd’s energy, which in the past meant kids leaping off tables and chairs while shouting along with every word. It would have been nice to see them without a barrier again, like earlier shows at Yayo Taco and Hypnotic Lounge, but at least the barrier at Hard Rock Live isn’t insurmountable, and frontman Jeremy Bolm spent a good portion of the set perched right up front so fans could sing along on tracks like “Pathfinder” and “Honest Sleep.” And although I didn’t see any stage dives this time, that didn’t mean the crowd was placid, as dozens of fans attempted to crowd surf and others just used their fellow attendees as spring boards to launch themselves closer to the band, though none of them made it all the way to the stage. Dads’ John Bradley returned to the stage to lend his vocals to “Steps,” while Tigers Jaw’s Brianna Collins made an encore appearance joining the band onstage for “Blue Angels,” a song Touché dedicated to recent tourmates and hometown favorites Caravels (who I wish could have opened the show).

Now to address the loud, asshole elephant in the room. This was Touche’s biggest headlining show ever in Vegas and it makes sense, since their last gig here was opening for AFI at a sold out show that clearly won them some fans. Unfortunately one “fan” put a damper on what should have been a more joyous occasion. This audience member decided to spend the entirety of the show shouting out tasteless comments, some sexual, some homophobic, none funny. The problem was especially noticed when all three bands have quieter moments in their songs where shouts like these are given room to reverberate through the relatively small venue. Things came to a head towards the end of Touché’s set, when Bolm descended into the crowd for “Condolences” and was greeted not by the words sung back at him but by more insufferable comments. Before closing with “Tilde,” Bolm chastised the dude, telling the audience that what should have been a great show was damped by the actions of “that guy” and warned us not to be “that guy” in the future.  Touché has been a consistent presence in Vegas over the last few years and hopefully the actions of one idiot don’t ruin that for the rest of us.

-Emily Matview

Photos by Emily Matview | https://www.flickr.com/photos/holdfastnow/

and Hunter Wallace | https://www.flickr.com/photos/hunter_wallace/