Tropical Fuck Storm started off their TV Eye residency on September 26th by blowing everyone’s face off. This band puts their everything into their music, but their whole being into their gigs. You’d think this barn burner was the last show they ever planned on playing, not the first of a three-night residency.
Tropical Fuck Storm is touring on their new album, Fairyland Codex, a varied, intense, and melancholic album. Despite that description it’s cathartic, and you can tell it’s that way for the band as well. Not one of them holds anything back.
Standing by the stage you’re likely to catch spit from frontman Gareth Liddiard and his punchy, angered vocals, barking and yelping in staccato. Liddiard appears on stage to be a man possessed, twisting and turning like the beat up guitar he’s been using for over a decade is somehow attacking him. Yet the look on his face would tell you he’s seeing god, or the devil (depending on the song). He’s also barefoot in a pair of jeans and a barely buttoned up shirt if that helps your mental image.
You’re equally as likely to be sprayed by sweat flying off the band’s drummer, Lauren Hammel. Being at the back of the stage, you’d think there must have just been some liquid on the drums. But the way Hammel thrashes her whole body over the kit just sprays water across the stage like a dog shaking off after being in the pool. It’s incredible she’s able to lift her arms above her head after doing this for one night, let alone the four months they’ve been on tour.
Erica Dunn, the band’s guitarist and keyboardist, is unstoppable, always bouncing up and down, and always sporting a top knot meant only to bounce and swing along with her. She also contributes vocals for many of TFS’ songs, providing a wonderful contrast with Liddiard and giving the band an impressive range of sounds to play around with.
Dunn has a new solo record, Turning Yr Back on the Dolphin, that was released Friday under the name Palm Springs. An eclectic, mostly acoustic 8 song album recorded on tape, giving the folksier songs the warmth and charm of Liz Phair‘s original 4-track tape recordings of Batmobile. You can find the full album available on Bandcamp.
Fiona Kitschin, the band’s bassist and member of The Drones with Gareth Liddiard, contributes much of the anachronistic beachy feeling underlying much of their genuinely haunting music. Their song “Who’s My Eugene” about the late, great Brian Wilson’s tumultuous life and relationship with his psychiatrist Eugene Landy (again haunting), is a high note of Kitschin’s and what originally drew me to the band. Her jazzy, relaxed bass line perfectly balances Erica Dunn’s scream and shout vocals to form one of the most emotionally conflicting, yet beachy sounding, songs ever.
On Sunday, the band capped off their three-night stay at TV Eye with their cover of “This Perfect Day,” turning The Saints’ punk classic into a riot grrrl anthem for the modern ages. Following their residency the band enters the home stretch of their tour with 4 more shows, ending with a gig at Tubby’s in Kingston on October 3rd.
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