Pride Tiger / Frosted Tipz / Headband

Few venues in Canada are as suited for good-natured testosterone rock as the Starlite thanks to its sermon-on-the-mount, uphill roll to the stage. Taking wise advantage, singing drummer Matt Wood shoved his kit precariously to the edge as Vancouver’s Pride Tiger reminded us once again how being amicable and tough at the same time makes damsels swoon and orcs relax, raised fists or no. In theory, there’s something impressively "wheelchair” about facing the audience with such a mechanism of syncopation, an artistic tweak that’s defiant and marvellous. Good enough to attract the major labels, eh? For sure the generation-leaping grandkids of Phil Lynott’s vibe, rhythm and swagger own Tiger’s songs like "56 Days” and the extra butch "Let ’Em Go,” while the guitarists Bob Froese and Sunny Dhak swap lead, and Wood channels Triumph’s Gil Moore — with his mouth open wide enough to land a plane in. Looks like they were making a video, too. Like a lot of these post-modern rock bands, samey-ness is a bit of a sonic limp, but tell that to AC/DC. The Edmontonians were happy, even that one dude who got turned back at the airport to Cuba because his passport had keeled over dead. Meanwhile, after some solid bar rock from Headband’s extended line-up, including local DJ Miss Mannered stroking his/her hair onto the keys and Penny Buckner growing mightier with each drumbeat, it was coup night for local act Frosted Tipz. Replacement Amy van Keeken violently seized lead vocals, fitting perfectly into the band’s poses and greasy sex appeal. Look out for them. (Our living iron maiden, my heart goes bang bang.) But let’s be professional. If anything could sum up the night it’d be divine rhythm under cherry light. If that sounds dirty, well, it was.