LIVE ROCK GIG: Tijuana Panthers Concert Review

Saturday, August 2, 2014

TIJUANA PANTHERS CONCERT REVIEW - THE FEDERAL UNDERGROUND - LONG BEACH, CA-7/10/14

We have been waiting patiently for almost a year for a Tijuana Panthers show in Long Beach. The band's last hometown appearance was at Fingerprints Records last August for a record release party for the album, Semi-Sweet. A lot has happened to the band in the past year. Back on June 10th they released the fantastic new album Wayne Interest on LA's Innovative Leisure Records.

TIJUANA PANTHERS LIVE ON STAGE

The band has also been touring all over Europe this summer playing large music festivals with some of the biggest names in rock. When the Federal Underground show was announced we were looking forward to seeing the band play in this intimate, cozy venue. The Federal Underground, which is under The Federal Bar on Pine Ave., is one of our favorite new music venues in town. We were also looking forward to hearing the band perform their new songs live.

Once the band took the stage it was easy to see that they were in top form. They hit the ground running with the song "Four Horseman" which is the opening track from their new record. After that, they ripped right into "Cherry Street" which we were lucky enough to capture in the video below.

The band's sound is a combo of garage, surf and punk rock which translates to an incredibly powerful live show. The unique thing about the band is that all three members share lead vocal duties, each adding different vocal nuances to round-out their energetic sound. The amount of contagious energy that they create always sends their audience into a frenzy. Tonight's show was no exception. By the time they got to the song "Torpedo" the crowd was going absolutely nuts, slam dancing and crowd surfing.

The band mixed their 21 song set list with tunes from all three of their records: Max Baker, Semi-Sweet and Wayne Interest. This was the kick-off of what would be 3 local, Long Beach shows. The latter 2 pop-up shows happened on July 26th at the Pike Bar and at Bixby Park as part of the Summer and Music Concert Series. The series of shows was a nice treat for their hometown fans that have missed them during their increasing success abroad.

TIJUANA PANTHERS FEDERAL BAR SET LIST

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

TIJUANA PANTHERS-CONCERT REVIEW-FINGERPRINTS RECORDS-LONG BEACH, CA-8/24/2013

Tijuana Panthers took a break from their west coast tour tonight to play a special homecoming show at Fingerprints Music in Long Beach. A capacity crowd packed the popular East Village record store to see the return of their hometown heroes. The band was celebrating the release of their new album "Semi Sweet" which is out now on Innovative Leisure Records.

Tijuana Panthers' sound is a mix of 60's surf rock, garage rock with a little punk attitude mixed in for good measure. The band took the stage at Fingerprints and tore into the song "Pushover" a great track from the new album. Check out the video we shot. By the time the song was over the crowd was worked into a hot, sweaty frenzy. They seemed to feed off the energy that the band put out during their live show.

Phil Shaheen drums like a possessed madman while Daniel Michicoff played his bass like a machine gun and guitarist Chad Wachtel is reminiscent of a young Dick Dale. What makes Tijuana Panthers unique is that they have no dedicated lead singer. All three members take turns singing lead vocals while the others handle background harmonies.

Below is a video of the band performing the song "Summer Fun" from their debut album Max Baker.

Below is a video we shot of the band performing "This Town" which was the last song of their set. At this point in the evening the room felt like a sauna from the heat being generated by the crowd.