"Ninety-nine per cent of art is sh.t!" declared a growling Ron Hitler-Barassi to the masses gathered at Brisbane's The Riverstage last Sunday. At least, I think it was him.
The band have long made an art out of subverting the cliches of music, most notably hiding behind balaclavas and pseudonyms, binning the cult of personality around musicians. Since their initial demise in 2004, the mystery has been solved – they were teachers, hence why they'd tour during school holidays.However, that revelation did not spoil fans' excitement for their triumphant return, filling the Brisbane night air (20 October) with ecstatic cries when the seven-piece took the stage, wearing matching red boilersuits, capes, and balaclavas with massive mohawks fanning from their scalps.
TISM have been building up to this return since 2020, beginning with making their catalogue available on Spotify. After a triumphant live return at 2022 Good Things Festival, the band are not resting on past glories. Recently releasing their first album in 20 years, 'Death To Art', the band opened their supporting tour with a massive line-up that reminded Ben Lee of Homebake '99 – a line-up that may be in the one per cent of great art.
The Mavis's - image © Clea-marie Thorne
Welcoming the crowd were Ballarat band The Mavis’s, who reminded the crowd about their last visit to Brisbane's Riverstage. "We played here with Green Day in 1998," Beki Colada told the crowd. "We had stuff thrown at us, but so did they, so it's alright."
Beki and her brother, Matt Doll, are the only members of the band from that time. Also staying in the past were objects being pelted at them as the audience were entranced by the band's rich melodies throughout their short set – their first in six years.
Among their set, the band debuted a new song, 'Heaven'. Dedicated to the memory of Ollie Olsen (the legendary Australian multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer who recently passed after a battle with multiple system atrophy), the song showed their talent for pop hooks hasn't diminished.
It would be remiss not to mention the band's defining single, 'Cry'. It's an incredible song, and it was a soaring highpoint in a strong set. Most impressive is how well the pair have maintained their voices, especially Matt, hitting the song's incredible boyish falsetto notes without a crack 26 years after the song's release.
Ben Lee - image © Clea-marie Thorne
"What a pleasure this is about to be," Ben Lee beamed at the crowd before strumming the chiming guitar chords of opening song, 'Cigarettes Will Kill You'.
The last time I saw Ben perform, he played an incredibly fun and loose solo set at the now shuttered Stranded Bar. At The Riverstage, Ben was backed by a three-piece band and played a tight set, but that sense of fun and positivity lit the stage.
During a call-and-response in his song 'Into The Dark', Ben and the audience sang: "I stole TISM's balaclavas because I saw them hanging from a special rack and I gave them to my nana."
A slight mistake occurred during the toy piano intro of 'Catch My Disease'. An egotistical artist would have admonished their band, but Ben laughed. "That is called a f... up and I wear them proudly," he told the crowd as he began a round of applause in celebration of the unpredictability of live music.
Eskimo Joe - image © Clea-marie Thorne
A cool change came with the sunset, bringing darkness for the moody anthems of Fremantle's Eskimo Joe. After walking out to 'Star Wars''s 'Imperial March', power chords burst out for 'Sarah'.
The band have grown from scrappy upstarts into rockstars, belting out anthems such as 'Foreign Land' and 'Black Fingernails, Red Wine'. Even new song 'The First Time' sounds like a bona fide anthem, featuring the great couplet: "I used to smoke cigarettes, now I'm just gasping for air."
A reminder of the band's humbler origins came when the supporting musicians departed the stage, leaving the core trio to perform their early hit, 'Sweater' before spines tingled when Eskimo Joe closed with the enduring classic 'From The Sea'.
The song's opening piano notes and Kav Temperley's quivering sighs brought the audience back to 2004 when life seemed easier, building to a crashing outro powered by the drums of Paul 'Horsepower' Keenan.
Machine Gun Fellatio - image © Clea-marie Thorne
Up next, a warning was projected on to the stage backdrop. 'This performance contains: sexual references, drug references, strong coarse language, strobe effects, and nudity,' it read. 'You've been warned. It's Machine Gun Fellatio for f...'s sake!' read a second.
It's been 19 years since the Sydney troublemakers have graced a stage, and anticipation could be judged by the number of fans lumbering through the masses on the hill to the stage. Finally, KK Juggy took to the stage alone, her gold jacket glittering in the dark, and opened with an a capella performance of '(Let Me Be Your) Dirty F...ing Whore'.
Finally, the entire band took the stage, turning The Riverstage into a scene from the Playboy Mansion, featuring everything the crowd was warned about. As the band played through their set, pyrotechnics blazed, women in cat suits prowled, and a green-wigged hula hooper amped up the crowd.
Members went through costume changes, some in front of the marvelled crowd. It's a spectacle that needs to be witnessed, and the songs still hold their naughtiness. A slight technical difficulty came when Pinky Beecroft was alone on stage, his keyboard possibly overheating from witnessing a striptease.
Once cooled down, Pinky performed a solo rendition of 'My Ex-Girlfriend's Boyfriend', a song he claimed to have written by mistake. It's a moment that showcases that when stripped of the metal bikinis and angle grinders, Machine Gun Fellatio could hold their own, but their return necessitates a massive party and was much welcomed.
TISM - image © Clea-marie Thorne
The crowd could barely bottle their anticipation for TISM, leading to the night sky filling with their loving chant: "TISM are wankers!" Finally, the masked ones arrived, adorned with silver capes billowing upwards via the leaf blowers on their backs.
The backdrop behind them fell, revealing three levels of scaffolding populated with artists painting on cardboard canvases, which they worked on throughout the set. Some puzzled faces appeared in the crowd as TISM performed.
Rather than play the hits, the band's set favoured a lot of deep cuts that excited the most dedicated TISM fans. Fans hoping to hear the likes of 'Thunderbirds Are Coming Out' would've felt disappointed. However, avoiding a greatest hits set is totally a TISM move, and it showed just how deep and rich their catalogue is. Hopefully the set list inspires those felt out of their depths to dive deeper.
When the hits did come, the elation from the crowd erupted. 'Saturday Night Palsy' and 'Whatareya?' turned the crowd ravenous, and whenever a member leapt down from the stage to the crowd barrier, rabid fans pulled them in and stole their balaclava. Thankfully they were fished out by security, who were equipped with a replacement balaclava at the ready.
TISM - image © Clea-marie Thorne
When the time came for the encore, the band returned carrying the paintings the artists had worked hard on. After a moment of admiration, the band flung them into the mosh, where they were torn apart like an unsuspecting creature by – the death of art for all to witness.
It's a subversive commentary on modern consumption habits, where culture is pulled apart and disposed. However, leaving the show, fans clung to the pieces of art, even ripping a piece off and offering it to other fans. It's an accidental commentary, showing the way that art lives on through fans sharing and starting communities.
In the art world, TISM are amongst the one per cent who are astounding.
More photos from the concert.
