Scranton indie rockers Tigers Jaw play intimate acoustic show at Karl Hall in Wilkes-Barre on May 31
It was announced today that Scranton indie rock band Tigers Jaw will return to Northeastern Pennsylvania for a headlining acoustic performance at Karl Hall in Wilkes-Barre on Friday, May 31.
The intimate all-ages show will celebrate the eighth anniversary of music blog Highway 81 Revisited, which was founded in NEPA and continues to cover bands in the area. Opening acts are TBA.
Doors at Karl Hall (57B N. Main St., Wilkes-Barre) open at 7:30 p.m., and the concert starts at 8 p.m. Tickets, which are $15 in advance or $18 at the door, are on sale now via Eventbrite. This event BYOB for 21+ (with a $5 corkage fee).
Last year, following a United Kingdom tour and North American run with Philadelphia pop punkers The Wonder Years, Tigers Jaw marked the 10th anniversary of their breakout self-titled album with a national tour that sold-out the Ritz Theater in downtown Scranton, playing the record in its entirety. Then they visited Australia and played their first-ever shows in Japan, closing out 2018 in their second home of Philadelphia with their own mini festival, Otherly Love, featuring Jeff Rosenstock, Land of Talk, Rainer Maria, Hotelier, Sidney Gish, and Gladie.
Tigers Jaw is still riding a wave of critical and commercial success since the release of their latest album, “Spin,” in 2017 on Atlantic Records’ new imprint, Black Cement Records. “Spin” was recorded with Philadelphia producer Will Yip, who also recorded their 2014 record “Charmer” at Studio 4 in Conshohocken. As the curator of Black Cement, Yip chose Tigers Jaw as the first band to be featured on the label, overseeing the creative process with vocalist/guitarist Ben Walsh and vocalist/keyboardist Brianna Collins, who have kept Tigers Jaw going through various incarnations.
“In a lot of ways, this record is a return to the way the band started in the sense that it was coming from two people working very closely together, and I think that resulted in something that was really cohesive,” Walsh said in a press release.
“The whole experience felt really organic, even if the recording process was different than anything we had done in the past together.”
“The two of us worked together so closely on this record, especially when it came to layering our harmonies, and I think along with open guitar chords and Casiotone organs, that’s what really makes this album sound like us,” Collins added.
“We needed to do what felt like Tigers Jaw – and I think we were able to do that in a really exciting way this time around.”
In March, they embarked on a tour with Philly indie rock group mewithoutYou, and they are set to perform at the Slam Dunk Festival in the U.K. this May with an impressive lineup of major rock and punk acts like All Time Low, Bullet for My Valentine, NOFX, New Found Glory, Bad Religion, Glassjaw, Less Than Jake, and The Menzingers, also from Scranton.
Highway 81 Revisited was founded in 2011 by NEPA native Michael Lello and “covers local, regional, and nationally relevant music, ranging from song premieres by artists like MiZ, The Spinto Band, and King Radio to interviews with Alice Cooper, Yoko Ono, Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, The Breeders, Of Montreal, and Del McCoury,” according to a press release from 2018. Highway 81 has also presented events at the F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre, The Bog in Scranton, and the River Street Jazz Cafe in Plains over the years.
Since 2014, when Lello became a web copy editor for the New York Post, H81R has been based in New York City. Last year, the website celebrated its seventh anniversary at Karl Hall with performances by Delaware Water Gap avant-folk band Lewis & Clarke, Brooklyn singer/songwriter Brother Roy, Philadelphia indie folk act Rosu Lup, and Scranton country/folk singer/songwriter Chris Kearney.
Read a review and see photos of Tigers playing the 2017 NEPA Holiday Show at the Scranton Cultural Center here and see photos of them opening for Dashboard Confessional at the Alt 92.1 Snow Show at the F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre in early 2018 here.
