ANAHEIM, Calif. — Tiger Army vocalist-guitarist Nick 13 said returning to the stage for the first time in two-and-a-half years to play with Danzig at Toyota Arena in Ontario back in May was a strange feeling.
“You would think, having played hundreds, or probably thousands of shows by this point, it would come right back, but that first show, it felt like I had never been on stage in my life,” the Los Angeles resident said during phone interview ahead of the band’s annual Halloween Octoberflame shows at House of Blues Anaheim on Friday and Saturday.
“That was the longest Tiger Army has gone without playing a show since we started,” he continued. “There have been periods of time off to write or record, but that was the longest stretch. I am glad that with the touring we’ve gotten to do this year, we’re back in fighting shape and ready for Octoberflame for sure.”
Coming back following the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns that completely shut down the live entertainment industry, Nick 13 said he had a difficult time trying to book any shows, let alone a full-blown tour in 2021 and this year.
“There was basically this logjam of artists trying to get back on the road and trying to book shows became a supply chain issue thing,” he said. “We found that none of the dates or venues we wanted were available, so I thought we’d do Octoberflame in Anaheim this year and that would be it.”
That’s when he got the call from fellow Los Angeles bands Flogging Molly and The Interrupters to jump on their 2022 summer tour.
“I was really happy to get that call and to get the chance to do a U.S. tour this year that we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise,” he said.
After two years without it, Nick 13 said he’s super excited to be bringing back Octoberflame, Tiger Army’s annual, multi-evening event that celebrates the Halloween season as the band members and fans come out in their costumes and rock along to carefully curated set lists each night that include alternate versions of songs, rarities, covers and a few other surprises. Nick 13 said he spends most of October figuring out how to make each show unique, adding that the sets are about 60% different since he knows some fans will buy tickets to both nights.
“There’s a lot of practicing and preparing,” he said.
During the pandemic-forced lockdowns, he spent time in his Los Angles home learning to make a variety of tiki drinks since his favorite tiki bars had been shut down.
“I dove pretty far into making tiki drinks at home and made about 100 recipes for the first time,” he said, noting that the Jet Pilot and Navy Grog cocktails became his favorites. “I actually got pretty good, but my skills have probably atrophied a bit since I haven’t made as much at home with everything reopened. At my height, I was pretty impressive, I think.”
Back in 2018, the band released its own tiki mugs and Nick 13 said doing that release at Tiki-Ti in Los Angeles was probably his favorite band signing event.
“I wouldn’t say that I collect tiki mugs, but I do still have a lot,” he said with a laugh. “Having 50 or whatever is me trying to not have a collection. I have too much stuff in general, but definitely when I’m on tour, sometimes I’ll see a tiki mug at a place and I’ll have to have it.”
He also worked on new music, though the solitude of the lockdowns didn’t conjure up any rip-roaring Tiger Army tunes, but rather material for his acoustic and more alt-country leaning solo career. He released his self-titled solo debut in 2011.
“I didn’t write as much as one would have thought for two-plus years off,” he said. “Inspiration, at times, was hard to come by, but I wrote solo songs. I was just at home by myself with the acoustic and it didn’t feel natural at that time to crank up the amp with an electric guitar and rock out. There are definitely songs I have from that period that I’m still kind of figuring out what to do with them.”
Tiger Army also celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2021. Originally formed in the Bay Area, the band’s first show was March 29, 1996, at 924 Gilman in Berkeley. Since then, the band has released six albums, a variety of EPs and done countless tours around the world.
“I think I’m just grateful for how much people still care and how much people have stuck with us,” Nick 13 said. “With Octoberflame in particular, we’re playing to people who in many cases have been coming to see the band live for 10 or even 20 years and a lot of them have seen us five, 10, 15 times or even more, so that comes with a special kind of pressure. We want to equal or outdo the best performance they’ve ever seen, so we raise the bar when it comes to Octoberflame. I just have a lot of gratitude at the moment, like ‘How have I been doing this for so long?’”
Tiger Army will wrap up 2022 by playing with the Misfits at the Michelob Ultra Arena at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas on New Year’s Eve.
“That’s definitely one of my biggest influences and there were a lot of things that were special about them that really appealed to me and still kind of inform what we do,” he said of the Misfits. “That connection between the rock and roll of the ’50s and ’60s and punk rock, that’s always been my favorite part, and the fact that Danzig was a real singer.”
Nick 13’s favorite Misfits song is “Hybrid Moments” off his favorite Misfits album, “Static Age.” In the past, Tiger Army has covered “American Nightmare” and “Violent World” in its Octoberflame sets.
“If I could go back and tell my teenage self, when I was dreaming about starting a band, that we’d be playing a show like that on New Year’s Eve, I’d be pretty happy,” he said.
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TIGER ARMY’S OCTOBERFLAME
When: 6:30 p.m. Oct. 28-29
Where: House of Blues, 400 W. Disney Way, Suite 337, Anaheim
Tickets: Starting at $39.50 at LiveNation.com
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