Concert review: Tigers Jaw w/ Pool Kids & Bleary Eyed | 06.19.26, Delmar Hall (with photo gallery)

Photo of Tigers Jaw by Laura Jerele

Okay so, let’s talk about Friday night because Delmar Hall was basically a sweatbox of pure joy, a ton of fun and I’m still buzzing about covering such a fun show.

The show was damn near sold out, and the floor was absolutely jammed early, like, barricade-huggers packed in shoulder to shoulder for the openers! This was for sure the kind of crowd where you accept early on that personal space is a concept for another night. Eww, but also, worth it. Every sweaty, elbow-to-the-ribs second of it. Was the A/C not working? Regardless, this crowd came out to have fun!

Bleary Eyed kicked things off, and they earned every bit of that early crowd. They told us they hadn’t played St. Louis since the pandemic, and you could feel how much it meant to them to be back here and with such a warm welcome. They seemed genuine with their thanks for showing up early and filling the room for an opening slot, which, respect, because a packed house for the opener is not a guarantee anywhere. Sonically they were this great push-pull of heavy and dreamy, melodies that felt disconnected and connected at the same time if that makes sense, like four separate thoughts that somehow landed in the same place. My favorite moments were when bassist Margot Whipps (just an absolute force) stepped up to take lead vocals. The handoff between her and the frontman Nathaniel Salfi was so refreshing, like the band had two different flavors and kept switching the channel. And yeah, I’ll say it: the name fits. There’s something genuinely bleary-eyed about their sound, hazy and heavy at once, like waking up into a wall of guitars with shoegaze goodness.

Pool Kids came up next and just detonated the room. Christine Goodwyne is a frontwoman in the truest sense, guitar slinging, vocals soaring, completely in control of a room that was already losing its mind. The guitar heavy interplay between her and Andy Anaya was fabulous to watch. Nicolette Alvarez and Caden Clinton are the rhythm section doing the unglamorous work of making the chaos feel intentional, dialed back a bit in comparison of energy, but just as heavy. They leaned heavy, but with pop sensibilities, with Goodwyne being a ball of energy that was off the stage, in the pit, on top of the crowd (singing while crowd surfing, nonetheless). Not being familiar with their songs, I can name “Tinted Windows” and “Talk Too Much” as songs that were standouts, and their energy was bombastic and youthful! They had circle pits going and non-stop crowd surfers like it was a metal show!

By the time Tigers Jaw played, the hall found another gear. It was a bit more like “let’s watch” versus “let’s circle pit” like with the set prior, but not stoic by any means.  They opened with “It’s Ok” and just rolled: “Primary Colors,” “Head Is Like a Sinking Stone” off the new record Lost on You, into older favorites like “Hum” and “June” that had the whole jam-packed floor singing every word back at them, and with a lot of force! Super cool to hear a loud crowd. I thought some of their songs had a gorgeous, aching, slow-burn sadness to them, but this was certainly more heavy than melancholy. They closed it out with “I Saw Water,” which, based on the crowd, I’m guessing that was the right call.

Honestly, three bands and a high-energy crowd that showed up early and stayed loud the whole night: Nothin’ to complain about here! | Laura Jerele