Hailing from Athens, Ga., Twin Tigers recently rolled into Flagstaff, rocking the Orpheum on tour with indie superstars Minus the Bear and The Antlers. The band is made up of Matt Rain’s guitar and lead vocals, Aimee Morris’ back-up vocals and bass, Doug Crump’s drums, and Forrest Hall’s guitar.

The Tigers commandeer an intense psychedelic, post-punk sound inspired by The Velvet Underground, My Bloody Valentine, Television and Sonic Youth. This is the young band’s first major tour, and they have already seen packed concert halls and their fair share of excitement.

“This is our first tour with Minus the Bear,” Morris said. “It’s awesome. As you can see, kids line up around the block.”

The Tigers have been musicians nearly all their lives. In Morris’s case, she dropped out of school to be in her band.

“The only thing I’m good at is playing an instrument,” Morris said. “I’m not good at anything else. Someone gave me a guitar when I was 12 and said, ‘If you learn one song, I’ll give you a real guitar.’ So I learned Nirvana’s “Come As You Are,” and then I got a real guitar.”

Rain, a musician for years, said he always felt like a vocalist, in some way or another.

“The thing about singing [is] you’re trying to find this voice, and it takes forever and ever, but the thing you gotta find is your own voice,” Rain said. “Stop trying to be other people, and start expressing this thing. It really just takes just singing for years and years.”

Twin Tigers started with Rain and Morris, who lived together and played in separate bands. When both bands broke up around the same time, Rain and Morris joined forces.

“We just took the best components of that band and immediately moved it into being this whole other thing,” Rain said. “You got these two bands that became this super group sorta thing. Only in Athens.”

The pair later added Doug Crump on drums and Forrest Hall on guitar. In February, Twin Tigers released Curious Faces Violet Future, an EP, they plan to release their first full-length album Gray Waves in January 2010. Joel Hatstat recorded the album in Hatstat’s famous Bakery Studio.

“The energy of Athens definitely got into the record,” Rain said. “It’s basically just this big, luscious pile of joy.”

On the road, the band experienced plenty of chaos, from naked dance parties in the van to signing fans’ stomachs and bonding with The Antlers and Minus the Bear.

“The Antlers introduced us to a thing called the Hot Shot,” Rain said. “It is tequila and Tabasco, and it’s like you’re in a van for eight hours, you drink it and you’re awake again.”

They even had a close scrape with death once at a McDonald’s drive-thru.

“We decided to order something off the 99-cent value menu so we could sleep in the parking lot in our van,” Rain said. “This guy tried to cut in line, and we were like, ‘What are you doing?’ We pull forward a little bit, and he gets out of his van. Just a giant dude — looks like he could play for the Dallas Cowboys as some kind of linebacker, but with red eyes — and he comes up and starts threatening to kill us with his gun.”
Rain breathed a sigh of relief and said, “As far as things go on tour, that’s as intense as it gets.”

Next year, the Twin Tigers plan to tour again, and they hope to rock through Flagstaff, leaving an even bigger mark than last time.

A crowd surfer is pushed off the stage by Orpheum staff during Minus the Bear’s performance at the concert on Nov. 4. The band opened for Twin Tigers. Jacki Philleo / The Lumberjack