TISM | PICA | Melbourne | 2nd May
Every now and then, a piece of art is made that is somehow so good that it feels like the peak of its medium; ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ for rock music. ‘Breaking Bad’ for television or ‘Citizen Kane’ for film. TISM’s show at PICA last night gave me that feeling, if the medium was ‘large open air venue in Port Melbourne that features a 3-stage setup.’
Since re-uniting in 2022 to headline Good Things festival following an 18-year hiatus, iconic Australian rock royalty TISM have been playing shows (usually secret ones) sporadically around the country whenever they see fit.
Admittedly, this was my first time seeing the band live (unfortunately, I was still a good decade out from being conceived at the height of their popularity), but I am quite familiar with the reputation the band has for pulling off extravagant on-stage production and costume design. Yet, somehow, I was still unprepared for what I witnessed take place at PICA last night.
The show being labelled simply as ‘a TISM gig’ felt like a gross undersell. I’ve been to events marketed as ‘festivals’ with smaller lineups than this. 6 supports acts (all of which were local Melbourne bands) across 2 main stages, interspersed with short, unannounced solo sets from Davey Lane of You Am I on a third side stage, made the night feel more like a celebration of the current Melbourne music scene than simply just a TISM show with some support acts. It was a great showcase of the current bands to look out for, the local acts that will inevitably become the next generation of household names in the industry.
Then it was time for TISM to take the stage. Where do I even begin?
As the crowd was waiting for the show to begin, the main stage lit up with red ambience, along with a giant screen on the back wall featuring a strobe warning. Pretty standard stuff for the pre-show ‘waiting game.’ Then the house lights dimmed, the stage lights started flashing, suspenseful music started blaring, and then TISM came out… on the 2nd, smaller stage, at the back of the venue. There I was thinking I was going to be standing at the back of the crowd, turns out I was at the very front.
TISM opened with the track ‘Old Skool TISM’, a nihilistic and overtly self-aware track from their recent comeback album ‘Death to Art’. That description actually applies to the vast majority of tracks from the latter half of the band’s catalogue. Lyrics such “Wisdom’s useless, age a prison” and “reforming after so long, yeah I know it sucks, but Good Things offered us 10 million bucks” perfectly encapsulate and convey how they feel about being a band doing what they do in 2026. But in my opinion, in 2026, we’ve never needed TISM more.
After 5 songs on the secondary stage, the band ran off around the side of the venue to the main stage at the front. A few punters in the crowd near me decided to follow and make their way to
the front stage to get a closer view. Then, after 5 more songs on the main stage, the band then walked back over to the rear stage for another 5, and along followed the same crowd that had left to go to the front previously.
“OK,” I thought. “So this is how it’s gonna go. They’ll just go back and forth between the stages. Cool.”
Boy, was I wrong. After the second stage swap, no longer did the band visibly walk around the side of the venue to get to the other stage. They would just appear there. “What?” It then became apparent there were 2 ‘TISMs’ going the whole time, and transitions between stages just happened seamlessly from song to song. The small group of people that were following the band from stage to stage realised at this point there was no point trying to keep up; TISM were one step ahead of everyone the whole time.
But wait, there’s more. Before the final act of the show, a third TISM appeared on the side stage that was previously hosting Davey Lane during his intermittent performances earlier in the night. One TISM performing ‘The Mystery of the Artist Explained’ on the main stage, a second TISM performing a country rendition of ‘Defecate on my Face’ on the secondary stage, and the third TISM performing ‘TISM are Shit’ on the side stage. All at the same time. It was an absolute mess of noise and light in the best way possible. I don’t even know how to describe it beyond the objective nature of what it was, it was just madness.
The show ended with the TISMs on the main two stages performing ‘Give Up for Australia’ simultaneously. then abruptly ending, and that was that. No goodbyes, no half-assed thank-yous. A weirdly underwhelming finale, but one that didn’t feel out of place given the nature of the gig.
TISM’s PICA show was not only a grand celebration of Melbourne music culture, but also a wonderful culmination of a career spanning 4 decades that truly made the most of the opportunity they had given the capabilities of the venue. A gig that was probably a logistical nightmare to put on, but one that paid off in a glorious way. You really had to see it to believe it.