TISM’s Death to Art tour at Melbourne’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl on Saturday 9 November brought the band’s signature eccentricity to a whole new level and solidified their legacy as one of Australia’s most enigmatic acts.
TISM – joined by Machine Gun Fellatio, Eskimo Joe, Ben Lee and The Mavis’s – delivered a chaotic mix of comedy, satire, and cutting-edge rock, giving fans an unforgettable night of Australian music.
Known for their satirical and often biting commentary, TISM delivered not only classic hits like “Saturday Night Palsy”, “I’m Interested in Apathy”, “Greg! The Stop Sign!” and “(He’ll Never Be) An Ol’ Man River”, but also new material from their latest album, Death to Art, blending political and social humour with sheer musical energy.
TISM has (mostly) kept its members’ true identities under wraps, maintaining anonymity through costumes, pseudonyms, and elaborate personas since forming in Melbourne in the early 1980s. This anonymity allows TISM to critique celebrity culture, fame, and societal issues without individual identity overshadowing their work.
And Saturday night was no exception. They opened up with Ron Hitler-Barassi delivering a scathing attack on various modern-day Australian pariahs – the likes of Bruce Lehrmann and Ben Roberts-Smith before launching into their song “I’ll Ave Ya” and total chaos reining on the stage, while several artists were on a scaffolding behind them painting pictures.
Dressed in red hazmat type suits and matching red balaclavas (some with a sort of chicken/rooster comb arrangement on top) the seven members of TISM, who are all getting on in years to be honest, managed a performance with no letting up of the energy they would have displayed 20 or 30 years ago.
There were body slams on the stage, and plenty of stage diving where fans ripped their masks off and a faithful roadie yanked them back out of the crowd to safety (repeatedly). There was crowd surfing aplenty down the front in the mosh pit. This Gen X suspects a few fellow Gen Xers got carried away, went a bit hard and were probably mainlining Voltaren in the morning.
At the end of the night, the paintings that were being created behind them were tossed to the audience, still wet. They were grabbed at, flung, and ripped apart and souvenired. One woman offered to sell me her ripped up shard of painting for a few hundred bucks on the way out. She revealed she had tried to sell it to several people already, who had laughed at her and declined. She was going to try her luck on eBay, she said, seemingly oblivious to the point that TISM were making about most art being “shit”.
Machine Gun Fellatio
The supporting acts added to the nostalgia making it a huge night for those who loved the 1990s and honestly wouldn’t mind going back there – with Machine Gun Fellatio’s first performance in nearly two decades bringing a wild and unpredictable vibe as they performed hits like “Rollercoaster”, “Not Afraid of Romance”, “The Girl of My Dreams (Is Giving Me Nightmares” and “Unsent Letter”.
It was a return to form for the band, known for their outrageous performances and risqué humour, with full frontal flashing from singer KK Juggy and keyboardist/singer Chit Chat von Loopin Stab treated the crowd to both an arseless pair of pants, and then later nothing but a Winnie the Pooh head over his nether regions.
Machine Gun Fellatio
Eskimo Joe, Ben Lee (who at one point donned a TISM balaclava) and The Mavis’s all lent their own unique flavours to the night, each drawing cheers from the enthusiastic crowd. Overall, the evening was a five-star triumph, and probably one of those gigs people will reminisce about for. years to come.
L-R: The Mavis’s, Ben Lee, Eskimo Joe
The crowd left the night booing and jeering loudly and yelling “TISM ARE WANKERS!” Which for a TISM concert means they enjoyed it very much.
