Above photos of Republic Tigers by D. O'Toole & C. Marcoux
Above photos of Travis by D. O'Toole
This past Friday night at the TLA here in Philadelphia, Kansas' The Republic Tigers did a bang-up job of warming up the crowd and were the perfect match to tour headliners Travis. The group had their own ecstatic fan-base, and gaining momentum song after song, they had heavy audience clapping, and sing-along reprise to their popular track "Buildings & Mountains". The band left the stage to their left-of-center version of Blondie's "Heart of Glass". Hearing lead-singer Kenn Jankowski's usual dark vocals go into a high falsetto, was a fun surprise, and the band left the stage on a high note.
Thanking the house and a close to capacity crowd for "remembering The Trav'", lead singer Fran Healy and the members of Scottish group Travis bounded into a song from their sixth studio album "Ode to J. Smith" as part of their opening set. The album itself has been Travis' first independent release from their label contract with Independiente. The album has been a great success for the band, and one that has musically been compared to the 'rock feeling' of their first album "Good Feeling". The band gave the whole set their animated best, wowing the crowd with everything from Fran's trademark singing within their crowded but welcoming audience, even taking time to dance with a local lass and shake hands, as well as jumping off of the band's Orange amps to emphasise songs being played. The set list was over the top and covered hits and tracks from the beginning of their discography to their most recent release. To great crowd applause it was announced that "All I Wanna Do Is Rock" (from Good Feeling) had been added back into the band's live repetoire. "Flowers In the Window" became the touching encore closer, with the band getting the crowd to sing along to lyrics, while all members came to the forefront to take part; Dougie Payne (bassist, singer) and Andy Dunlop (guitar, banjo, backing vocals) each taking turns on Fran's guitar--Andy holding the fret, Dougie strumming and Fran leading the group chorus. A fantastic night, with a band who really loves their audience and shows it on so many levels--come back soon Trav'!
Travis - band site / myspace
The Republic Tigers - chopshop records / myspace
great photos! glad it was a great show...
Posted by: Royce Epstein | April 26, 2009 at 12:25 PM