The Moshville Times - Gig Review: Tigercub / James and the Cold Gun / Terminals – The Asylum, Birmingham (22nd October 2023)

Tigercub have become a bit like their ex-touring partners, Clutch. If you know them, you know they’re an absolute force. Third album, The Perfume of Decay, is a portrait of the band building up to the moment – everything they’ve recorded before has led to this. So it’s unsurprising that it’s one of the best albums of the year and now, they’re showing the fruits of their labours across the country with Birmingham’s Asylum show right at the start of the tour.

Despite it being a Sunday night and an earlier opening time than usual, Terminals play to a sizeable crowd. Blending indie and shoegaze, it sounds pretty and is a good fit for tonight, a gentle way to ease us into the assault which we’re steeling ourselves for. Technically proficient and tight, they know appear comfortable on a large stage, but they also appear to be a band who could be equally comfortable in a tiny club. It’s not excessively saccharine and there’s a polite response to the trio which becomes more enthusiastic over the course of their performance. It’s easy to see they’re giving it their all off-setting them being a bit middle of the road but it’s largely inoffensive and it’d be great to see them with a bit more development behind them.

Taking the evening into the other extreme, James and the Cold Gun sound much more edgy than they look and between them and their predecessors, it shows the diversity of the headliners as well as their chameleon-like sound. Main for their Loosegroove label mates, it’s hard-charged punk injected into hard rock with an indie gloss. It’s music which is constantly moving and designed to get you moving, too. Vocalist James Joseph (which would make the rest of the band The Cold Gun) is effervescent and whilst his calls for a pit during every song may be a bit heavy-handed, he manages to get a small pocket to do it every time. Regardless, they’re a slick outfit with stacks of confidence and suitably heavy, there’s a heart to it where it’s more than just about smashing power chords. Lyrically, it’s music you can relate to when Joseph explains the meaning behind some of the songs, you’ll find yourself in them. And with a far-reaching sound, it’s likely they’ll be cropping up on a number of different bills.

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Hitting the ground running with “Swoon”, the Brighton trio of Tigercub are here, bursting with energy. It’s a track which shows off the dynamics of The Perfume of Decay, as does follow-up number, “The Dark Below”. Both tracks are bright yet dark in equal measure, hanging on Jamie Hall’s flamboyant and aggressive vocal runs, marrying pristine highs with gritty and aggressive lows. Of the three of them, he’s positively ecstatic from the minute he appears and whilst he and bassist Jimi Wheelwright don’t cross the stage, keeping to their respective sides, they’re hardly statuesque.

Indeed, it’s set full of swagger, blasted at a colossal volume and speed for the most part. There’s the token dip at the halfway point for some tamer numbers and its where the band show their trippier moments as hints of shoegaze, psychedelia and indie converge during the run of “Burning Effigies”, “Omen”, “Memory Boy” and “Control”. It shows them in a more controlled, measured and thoughtful manner and whilst “Memory Boy” bleeds Queens of the Stone Age in their more muscular moments, it’s not quite so cock sure as Josh Homme’s band, albeit every bit as slick and polished. It’s also interesting that this interlude is comprised of their debut album, Abstract Figures in the Dark, and if Hall approaches crafting a setlist like he does an album (which he discussed with us a few months back), then it’s not by coincidence. It allows the band’s more embryonic stage to be safely nestled between the snarling beast that they’ve become.

However, on either side of the mellow which manages to not languish in a mire of maudlin dirges are some of the band’s biggest and bolshiest numbers. “Play My Favourite Song” balances the two, creating a big, bombastic number in the vein of early Royal Blood, its party vibe belying the lyrics of offsetting a low mood by putting on your favourite band or album. Meanwhile at the top of the set, it gets gritty with “Blue Mist in My Head” before going into “I.W.G.F.U” which, if you need help, stands for “I Wanna Get Fucked Up”. And it does sound fucked up. It’s delightfully filthy and dissonant, laden with fuzz which is thicker than treacle.

With “Stop Beating on My Heart (Like a Bass Drum)” and “Beauty” closing out the evening, there’s no other word to describe the night than victorious. They mix musical intelligence with light and shade and a dynamic approach to rock that isn’t heard anywhere else. Full of chemistry and performing as a unit, it’s no surprise as a live force, they’re even better than when they opened for Clutch. The new material is deliberately paced in the live environment, pacing patiently until the songs burst into life like a balloon filled with powdered paint exploding on impact. There’s a sense that this tour has been everything the band has been building towards for years and it’d be unsurprising if they continue to get better with every release and tour.

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Header image by Andreia Lamos