The question hanging over tonight's show (for me, at least) is how on Earth TISM could hope to top the marvellous Save Our TISM telethon held here last September. The answer is... TISM Idol! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, tonight seven lucky contestants are vying for the chance at the big time as a member of TISM!
Honestly, I needn't have worried. TISM are fantastic tonight, just like they always are - just as anarchic, intelligent, cynical, satirical and above all, hilarious, as they've ever been. Tonight's show mixes new songs from The White Albun with an assortment of older songs (dare I say 'classics'?) to good effect. The only disappointment is that Ron Hitler-Barrassi's obligatory spoken word monologue is kinda short, and doesn't contain anything to rival the quite spectacularly offensive quip about Delta Goodrem he pulled out last time (although the image of Germaine Greer being spit-roasted by Canterbury Bulldogs players will probably give me nightmares for weeks to come). But the band are in fine form, there is stage diving aplenty, and all is good in the world.
At some time during the show tonight, though, I start to think about TISM's place in the grand scheme of things. For twenty years, they've been a brutal satire on everything there is to hate about this country - the yobbism, the petty obsession with celebrity, and equally the pretensiousness of "intellectuals" and their thinly disguised contempt for the working class. What are ya - yob or wanker? No-one gets out unscathed. And yet, after twenty years, they're still seen as a novelty act. In one way, you can say, well of course they are. They have silly song titles, they wear masks, they have ludicrous stage names and a predilection for getting naked. Just look at the article in The Age last week: critics hate TISM, TISM hate critics, TISM are smart-arses who constantly take the piss, and that's it. If that's the case, though, what is one to make of songs like the genuinely touching 40 Years Then Death, or even the pathos at the heart of the mediation on celebrity-by-association that is I Rooted A Girl? There's a reason that they've packed out Hi-Fi two nights in a row, virtually by word of mouth. The band would probably hate me for saying this - I'd doubtless be derided as a wanker (and I am - I'd choose James Joyce over James Hird every time) for even suggesting that people should start taking TISM seriously. But still, I said it in my review of their show here last year, and I'll say it again - TISM are a national treasure. The sooner people start looking behind the masks and realising what a wonderful band they are, the better.
