TISM took to three – yes three – stages at the Port Melbourne Industrial Centre for the Arts (PICA) on May 2 2026 in what can be described as a chaotic trolling of their fans as they played a one-off gig called Wankers of The World Unite.
TISM being TISM, it was never going to be a conventional gig. It was originally promoted as being on at 2pm, and frankly I was down for that. The seven members of the band have all got a good 10-15 years on me and I thought we could be done and home by a sensible time. Of course it didn’t go that way.
As time went on the bill for the event ballooned to something akin to a mini festival: 2pm became when the gates were to open for a 2:30pm screening of “the international theatrical debut of TISM’s Death To Art Live at Sidney Myer Music Bowl“. Support acts kept getting added. In the end there was a stacked lineup that also featured Sandy Dish, Large Mirage, Hot Machine, Dr Sure’s Unusual Practice, Drunk Mums and The Belair Lip Bombs.
Throughout the day, the support acts had been alternating between the front and rear stages of the venue – with You Am I’s Davey Lane, who wasn’t listed on the bill anywhere – popping up on a third, smaller stage to do “Davey Lane and TISM covers”.
The vibe at PICA was pure underground industrial scene. The Melbourne band played two gigs at the prestigious Sydney Opera House in April, but for this homecoming gig they chose something not even remotely refined or genteel. Sydney were the wankers, and we were clearly the yobs. Which let them get away with what happened next: total disruption and chaos.
When the band finally came out – after jeers and boos and a few rounds of the traditional TISM army chanting of “TISM are wankers!” – they appeared at the small, rear stage. No doubt to the dismay of all those people who had lined up to claim a spot at the front some 6.5 hours before.
Dressed in elaborate new costumes that comprised spiky headpieces and what seemed like prison jumpsuits from a gulag somewhere, they got things started with “Old Skool Tism” and then a few other numbers, before 6 members of the band left as frontman Ron Hitler-Barassi launched into a diatribe.
Those guys soon appeared on the front stage and stayed there for a few more songs. And this is how it would go during the course of the night. Some fans tried to run through the crowd from stage to stage. Others stayed in their spots and swivelled and craned as best as they could when the band popped up on another stage.
They belted through a large number of their classic songs: “Saturday Night Palsy”, “I’m Interested In Apathy”, “I’ll ‘Ave Ya”, “Death Death Death”, “Whatareya?”, “(He’ll Never Be) An Ol’ Man River”, “Defecate On My Face” and “All Homeboys Are Dickheads”.
At one point, there were three TISM bands playing on all three stages of the venue – all but 7 of them imposters in the same costumes the real band were wearing with different TISM songs playing simultaneously.
As someone near me noted, this was the band’s way of giving it back to the audience for all the booing that goes on at a standard TISM gig.
As always, TISM were pure provocation, incorporating conceptual performance art elements that blur the line between theatre and razor-edged alternative rock. It’s the kind of show you have to see to believe, a whirlwind of caustic wit and dark humour..
This is TISM. They are fundamentally resistant to categorisation and repetition, and they have always defined their own rules. They left us craving more TISM. It was glorious, a beautiful, sprawling cluster fuck that unified thousands of Melburnians.
You missed it? Too bad. They promised they’d never do it again.
