Tooth and nail Vancouver’s Fond of Tigers avoid cages but could use more stages BURNING BRIGHT: Fond of Tigers

by JOHNSON CUMMINS Bands like Vancouver’s Fond of Tigers hardly make life any easier for us critic types. We hacks just love nothing more than to conveniently cram things in tight little categorical boxes, but this seven-piece band, slippery eels indeed, defy description. Fond of Tigers are just as comfortable with Mingus-style outside jazz, Mahavishnu Orchestra-era prog rock and the rock/jazz fusion of Bitches Brew-era Miles Davis as they are with current math-rock, and will often use these touchstones within the same bars. Their last effort, 2007’s Release the Saviours, is a barnstormer with transient time signatures, bombastic rhythms and counter-melodies that is guaranteed to challenge anybody’s preconceptions. “I suppose that your typical 4/4 time makes me feel really restless and uneasy,” says guitarist Stephen Lyons. “Some of the worst sonic experiences I’ve ever had were just watching people bashing out the same pattern in 4/4 time. I don’t think anybody in the band is really into setting up any boundaries or feel the constraints of a time signature.” Fond of Tigers also prove to be a product of their environment, which is the seemingly moribund Vancouver music scene. Despite a serious lack of clubs, the quality of Vancouver exports of late bring to mind Nietzsche’s adage, “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.” With the majority of legit venues being shut down due to gentrification, DIY venues have sprung up in their wake, but they’ve all proven to have the life expectancy of a fruit fly. “It’s turned into a major issue in Vancouver, to find available and affordable space for shows where you aren’t going to get shut down. Our last show here got shut down and our moneybox and merchandise was seized. Everything has really gone underground and if you were to just roll into Vancouver and pick up a weekly here, you would have no idea what was really going on at all, because most shows are at just temporary DIY venues that run on hope and luck for three months.” WITH MENDHAM AT DIVAN ORANGE TONIGHT, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 9 P.M., $12