TVOD at Our Wicked Lady (photo by Kate Hoos)
If you’ve read this blog before, then you know I REALLY love Spite Fuxxx and TVOD and that both of them are powerhouse units on stage. So combine them together on one show and you can guarantee that I am taking a night off from work, SCHEDULE CLEARED, I AM THERE. This was a special show not just in that that lineup is INSANE, but it was also TVOD’s release show for their delightful new EP, Victory Garden, and also Spite Fuxxx first show back after they took a brief fall hiatus. Additionally, it was the first show TVOD members Nikki Sisti (guitar) and Kate Black (synth) had played with the band since August as both are also members of Thick who had been out on the road supporting Flogging Molly and Violent Femmes on a lengthy tour (see our post from their Pier 17 show). They just as quickly dipped back out of town on another tour with by the end of the week so it was a blink and you miss it event.
The show honestly would have been great just as those two bands, but was definitely a treat to see the support acts who kicked off the night – slick post punks, Grand Army Reapers, and energetic garage punks, My Son The Doctor. It was my first time seeing both bands and I had a great time during their sets; I will definitely be on the lookout for more of what they get up to in the future. They both got the crowd good and warmed up in time for the brilliant and beautiful cacophony that was to follow.
As mentioned, Spite Fuxxx, had taken a brief hiatus for the band to work on a cover set for Halloween and so their drummer, Alex Glueck, could prepare and host a showcase featuring his art (which is pretty phenomenal and I recommend checking it out either online or in person if you can). If you thought they’d come back rusty, you’d be totally wrong because they came back guns blazing. Not that they ever go don’t go hard, but there was an extra push on this night, and they played every last song like it was being blasted out of a fucking canon and screamed right in my face; I loved it so much. And even more, I have loved seeing this band a lot this past year and really connecting so much with their music. This is the kind of punk rock I live my life for – rowdy, topical/political but also crass and doesn’t take itself so seriously as to be pretentious or preachy, unrefined and never too slick, experimental and raw – bands like this are why I’m still here after decades and never plan to “age out” of this being my life. Really the only missing piece of the Spite Fuxxx puzzle for me now is a full length, which I really hope they are able to get recorded over the winter.
Spite Fuxxx at Our Wicked Lady
When you really break it down and take a step back, you can see that TVOD is less a band and more a vibrant rotating collective of friends who all contribute to a bright burst of colorful energy emanating from stage. The last time I saw them (at an epic double show day at the beach) was at the end of August so I was very ready for another round. Nothing seems to slow them down – not band members being on tour with other projects, not a broken elbow (which happened to second guitarist Jason Warnoff but had since healed in time for this show; no prior shows were missed or canceled even still) and certainly not the vocal mics cutting out in the middle of a song which happened at this show when they were playing the title track of the EP, “Victory Garden.” The band kept playing, lead singer Tyler Wright jumping in and out of the crowd and yelling over the music with the crowd pitching in to help. Once the mics were fixed before the next song, they kept right on barreling through the set, not returning to play the song again which I totally get because really, why play it again when the community embracing and uplifting you is louder than any mic?
TVOD at Our Wicked Lady
As the set continued, things got more and more raucous – instruments were swapped, the band grew in size to eight people as they were also joined by the two fill in players who play for Black and Sisti when they are out with Thick (Mem Pahl of Cat Tatt and Lyzi Wakefield of Gesserit) and by the end members of the audience and other bands were all crammed on the small stage – the fever pitch in the room made it seem like the roof might shoot off the building at any point. Like I said, this is a collective of friends not just on stage, but in the audience as well, everyone participating and contributing to this glorious punk rock symphony. As the final notes rang out, the band opted not to play an encore and Wright yelled “Go home and sleep it’s a school night!” And that as they say, was that.
After going through some pretty tough shit in my “regular” life recently, this show was beyond the head clearing I needed. Afterall, nothing quite soothes the soul like a good punk rock show can, right?
Scroll down for pics of the show (photos by Kate Hoos)
GRAND ARMY REAPERS
MY SON THE DOCTOR
SPITE FUXXX
TVOD
