Tigers Jaw Leave Sold-Out Union Transfer Crowd A ‘Sweaty, Happy Mess’

Tigers Jaw touched down from the emo-sphere last night at a sold-out Union Transfer and played a whopping, high-energy 22-song set. The Scranton exports wove handfuls of songs off their latest album Lost In You, their first album in five years, together with Tigers Jaw back catalog. Fans could stage dive, which is a rare occurrence. 

Opener Jon Simmons is best known for being the lead singer of now disbanded Balance and Composure, a local and very popular band in the melodic post-hardcore genre. Creeks is his solo acoustic project and has released his first album, The Pain You Took On, in 2021. 

“It’s Creeks, not crick, not river, and definitely not stream,” Simmons introduced this project to the crowd with thinly veiled sarcasm. 

The crowd was hanging on every word as Simmons bounced around The Pain You Took On.  Much like his writing in the past, Creeks is self critical and examines regret like in “Emotional Violence.” Simmons did introduce a new song he dedicated to friend Jay Clark called “Make It Swoon,” and announced that he’s planning on dropping a new album at the end of the year.

The three acts visited each other’s set, Hot Flash Heat Wave hopped on stage to backline Creeks for his final song “Airplane.”

Hot Flash Heat Wave’s music contains surf rock staples, new wave vocal patterns, and a touch of grunge on top of them being seriously unserious on stage. Arguably, they’ve created a new subgenre of hyper pop perfect for the Tigers Jaw millennials that like to dance.

Amidst tracks like “Grunge” off Sportswear, and their most popular track “Gutter Girl” off Neapolitan, Hot Flash Heat Wave debuted their new recent single “Freefall” to the Union Transfer crowd. All in all, everyone could tell guitarist and vocalist Adam Abildgaard, bassist and vocalist Ted Davis, drummer Jackson Felton, and guitarist Allen Moreno were having a lot of fun.

Tigers Jaw is composed of vocalist and guitarist Ben Walsh, keyboardist and vocalist Brianna Collins, drummer Teddy Roberts, bassist Colin Gorman, and guitarist Mark Lebiecki. Walsh and Collins are the longest running members of the band, and both were humbled by how Tigers Jaw has grown over the years, with Collins admitting she was fighting back tears.

“Head Is Like A Sinking Stone” was the band’s first single for Lost In You which dropped in late 2025.  The song boomed through Union Transfer far surpassing the experience of listening to it on the album to the level of metaphorically blowing everyone’s hair back.

Tigers Jaw also debuted a new song called “Staring At Empty Faces.”

Creeks hopped on stage to sing “Never Saw It Coming” and thrash around with Walsh. Collins got lost in the melody whipping her hair from side to side. She affectionately shouted Creeks out; he’s been their best friend throughout their lengthy history.

Before playing “Lost On You,” the album’s title track, Tigers Jaw ripped through some bangers, specifically the run from “We Are Great, There Is Only One” (Walsh dedicated this song to millennials), “Plane vs Tank vs Submarine,” and “Chemicals” off 2008’s self-titled. Well, they graced the Union Transfer crowd all night with bangers.

Tigers Jaw ended the night with “I Saw Water” which had the loudest reception, the combined enormity of the undeniable majority belted their hearts out last night at Union Transfer. When the lights came up the crowd was a sweaty, happy mess.

(Special thanks to Tigers Jaw fans Pamela and Marissa in the front row, who let me stand in front of them to take pictures during the band’s set after my camera broke and I pulled a hail mary and missed the first three.)