The charm of chiptune isn’t lost on anyone who has rescued Princess Peach from the final castle. It’s a fluid style of music that’s meticulous at best, composed from the sounds of vintage game chips and reshaped into quite literally any genre you can imagine. Synth-rock, pop, 8-bit jazz … the pixelated sky’s the limit.

Las Vegas trio Decaying Tigers—Austin Grimes on drums, Cheyne Shirley on bass and Jack Rubinstein on guitar—has been spreading the gospel of chiptune (and teaching it at the Sin City Anime Convention) for six years, producing a bright collection of 8-bit tunes across a handful of releases, including June’s Circuit Circus. The group also played last year’s Life Is Beautiful and was featured prominently in award-winning 2021 documentary Rarity: Retro Video Game Collecting in the Modern Era.

“I didn’t really know too much about [chiptune] until I started jamming with these guys and fell in love with it,” Grimes says. “I love old retro video games. I’m a big Nintendo fan, so this was right up my alley.”

Adds Rubinstein, “It gives you that reminiscence of being a kid again.”

Decaying Tigers works exclusively with authentic period hardware to create its quest-defying synth-rock sound, and that includes the 1989 Game Boy. The trio actually plugs the handheld in onstage with a two-channel mixer, piping in the sounds it has created on it as a backing track to the live set. Suddenly, zippy soundscapes burst forth, and the musicians kick into high gear, like human live wires driven by the conducting power of their pocket-sized friend.

“We access the sound chip of the Game Boy with a program called LSDJ,” Shirley explains. “You write all your notes, EQ it how you want it on there and everything is contained in the Game Boy, so you don’t have to have any external things.”

The trio says its greatly influenced by Anamanaguchi, the chiptune pop band behind Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game. But with personal influences that range from synthwave to pop-punk to metal, a Decaying Tigers album can easily become a smorgasbord of extremely heavy and extremely playful grooves. It also helps to have a cool story in mind.

“If you’re at that boss level, you gotta bring up the energy level,” Rubinstein says. “Or,” Grimes adds, “if it’s the cloud level, it’s a little more dreamy.”

Some song titles pay homage to video games (“Snake Eyes,” “Side Scroller”) and on Circuit Circus, the trio covers songs from Mortal Kombat, Tetris and Kirby. Now as the guys prepare to kick off their first 10-date West Coast tour, they’re also considering adding a vocalist to the mix. As with any player, the goal is to keep leveling up.

Favorite Video Game Soundtracks

Austin Grimes:

“All the Final Fantasy music is beautifully written. If I had to choose what’s the most impressive video game music soundtracks out there, I would have to go with that.”

Jack Rubinstein:

“Mega Man always had that rock ’n’ roll style. Before I even produced chiptunes, when I did stuff on Ableton or another music program, I did a mega remix of six of Mega Man’s songs, of all their best portions.

“I also love Streets of Rage. Streets of Rage 3 is the only soundtrack that had a randomizer. When you’re playing it, the synthesizers, the music, the drum tracks, everything is pre-recorded, but it’s not set in stone. As you’re playing, it could randomly play a part of the song or it could repeat a part of a song. You probably won’t hear most of the music the same ever.”

Cheyne Shirley:

“Probably Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, just because it’s so focused on music in that game. We recently covered a Zelda song, and it brings back so many memories.”

Click HERE to subscribe for free to the Weekly Fix, the digital edition of Las Vegas Weekly! Stay up to date with the latest on Las Vegas concerts, shows, restaurants, bars and more, sent directly to your inbox!

Decaying Tigers Decayingtigers.bandcamp.com | Next show: September 16, Double Down Saloon