The folks at DC9 like The Republic Tigers. The Kansas City quintet were at the 9th Street club in April, and the club liked them so much they brought them back for Friday’s Liberation Dance Party.

The band, which appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman the day before, plays atmospheric, sometimes epic indie rock with electronic flourishes. Their great single, “Buildings and Mountains“, sounds a bit like Travis or Grandaddy, while “Feelin’ the Future” is more insistent, and “Fight Song” is very catchy — all of Keep Color, released this month, is excellent.

Live, lead singer Kenn Jankowski (formerly of The Golden Republic) plays a snare as well as guitar, something we always appreciate, and the rest of the band provides guitar, bass, and keys, with drummer Justin Tricomi also controlling the samples.

Unfortunately for the band, some of the audience seemed to come just for the dance night, which usually features more electronic dance music; part of the crowd was standing cross-armed and looking a little annoyed. The band noticed, apologizing sheepishly a few times and referencing Old Greg (“do you like us? Make an assessment.”) But as the set went on, more of the dance party folks started to move and dance along, especially to the more up-tempo songs and a “remixed” version of “Contortionists”, with the band adding more keyboards and bass on the fly.

The Republic Tigers have an interesting sound, and so far they’ve parlayed it into some big spots — aside from Letterman, they’ve had a few songs on Gossip Girl and been featured on various sites, even publicizing Jankowski’s Xbox Live tag, in case you want to fight him in Halo or Call of Duty. Check them out.

Photo from the band’s Myspace