“We have really terrible news,” said Erica Dunn as the band took the stage. Tropical Fuck Storm (TFS), the Australian psychedelic rock band, touched down at the Quartyard in San Diego, CA on Friday Jan. 30. The band is currently touring their 2025 record, Fairyland Codex, a dystopian, experimental rock record that made waves last year for their art rock infused songwriting and critical observations on the increasingly Orwellian landscape of modern society.

“Gaz has completely lost his voice.”

The audience looked around at each other in discomfort as they absorbed the news that the band’s frontman Gareth Liddiard would be unable to sing. “We’re really sorry, if you want to say something to him, right now’s your chance!” laughed Dunn. She continued, “We just had a little team meeting about whether we should cancel the show or do the best we can, and since we know that everyone came a long way to be here, including us, we’re going to do the best we can without him. We’re so sorry, but you can give him shit for it!”

As if to prove her point, Liddiard let out an incoherent low growl into the microphone, the only decipherable word being “cunt,” exacerbated by the sound of his fried vocal chords. To this, the crowd let out an enthusiastic cheer, and TFS dove into their first song, “Bloodsport”.

You would think that starting a concert on their backfoot would have been a sour start for TFS, but fortunately for them the audience had been properly primed by the opening band, J.R.C.G.

Led by drummer and vocalist, Justin R. Cruz Gallego, the five-piece group combined noise rock, punk, and industrial aesthetics to deliver an explosive set reminiscent of Xiu Xiu at their angriest. Morgan Henderson’s driving and distorted bass pounded away alongside the drums, as Alex Gazanio and Jason Clackley’s eerie synth and guitar playing laid a backbone of droning sounds for the rhythm to rest on. The whole act was tied together by saxophonist and flautist, Victory Nguyen, whose atonal melodies and rabid playing emulated the synthesized spirit of Albert Ayler. Riddled with polyrhythms and atonal melodies, the band ended on a triumphantly, rich-bodied chord that left the audience in awe, and ultimately in good spirits to receive TFS’ disappointing news.

And although Liddiard might have lost his voice, he definitely didn’t lose his spirit, nor his guitar chops; Liddiard wrestled with that guitar as if he were strangling the song out of a swan. Fiona Kitschin and Dunn tag-teamed vocals with an electrifying chemistry: Dunn’s rich tone, reminiscent of Dolores O’Riordan of The Cranberries, blended splendidly with the expressive and accentuated tone of Fiona Kitschin. Together, they sounded comparable to an angrier version of Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson of The B-52’s.

Meanwhile Liddiard sang with his guitar, often mirroring the vocal melody and harmonizing with it whenever he wasn’t ripping into some otherworldly guitar solo. Playing with his pedals to give his guitar an extraterrestrial tone, Liddiard’s mastery of scales in conjunction with the blues-rock backbone of his strumming exemplified a true virtuosity with the instrument that would give even Jimmy Page a run for his money.

As the group ran through their songs with Dunn and Kitschin on the vocals, Dunn hopped back on the mic to tell the crowd, “If anyone thinks they can sing Gaz’s part, you know, do karaoke or whatever, you’ve got a couple songs to think about it. I’m not kidding.” An excited murmur arose from the crowd and a few hands flew up before the band erupted into a hard rock cover of The Bee Gee’s, “Staying Alive”. The band was bathed in yellow, orange, and purple lights as they ferociously roared through what can only be described as a Saturday Night Fever Dream.

“Ok I’m not fucking kidding,” Dunn said as they wrapped up the song. “If anyone feels like singing, get up here!”

Immediately, a young man with shaggy brown hair was lifted out of the crowd and onto the stage, where he was handed a microphone and a Modelo. “What’s your name?!” the crowd cried. “I’m Dallas!” he proclaimed, “like the shitty city in Texas!” The crowd started chanting, “DALLAS! DALLAS! DALLAS!” and after whispering to each other on stage, the band and their new singer Dallas tore into their 2018 doom-anthem, “You Let My Tyres Down”.

Dallas stumbled through a few parts as he found his footing, but confidently got a grip on the song, belting out the chorus, and even harmonizing with Dunn and Kitschin. The scene was unreal as the crowd watched Dallas live every rock fans dream of being pulled on stage to sing with the band.

The band ended the song with thunderous applause and Dallas was welcomed like a hero as he walked off stage and back into the crowd, all trying to shake his hand, pat his back, and ruffle his hair. Things became a blur as the band thanked everyone once more for coming and exploded into their final song. For the first time that night the crowd erupted into a mosh pit and it was as if the thrashing of their bodies was echoing the shredding tones of Liddiard’s guitar. When the song ended, the band triumphantly made their exit, tossing picks and setlists into the crowd, before handing one specifically to Dallas.

Catching up with Dallas after the show was difficult due to the throngs of people that wanted to give him a hug, clap his back, and wish him well, but luckily for this reporter, Dallas is a big fan of Anthony Fantano and The Needle Drop and took a moment to speak with us. “They’re my favorite fucking band,” Dallas said. “I can’t believe that just happened, we flew all the way from Hawaii to be here.” Dallas said he and his girlfriend Kali came to San Diego to see TFS because of how culturally isolated the islands are. “We came here just for the show, concerts are so inaccessible to us because we’re on an island,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of music subculture in places like Hawaii because it’s so remote. I’m the biggest Fantano fan in the world, he’s a lifeline to get access to stuff you can’t get out there.”

What could have been a devastating night for Dallas, and all those that came to see TFS perform, turned into an unbelievably unique concert for fans of the Australian psych band. Liddiard played guitar like his life depended on it, the band stepped up to deliver a one-of-a-kind performance, and everyone got to watch a fan live out every concert-goer's greatest fantasy. Terrible news turned into a terrific time for all.

A brief interview with Fiona Kitschin and Erica Dunn of Tropical Fuck Storm

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Tony @ TND: It looks like you've been on the road for a little while, what's it been like in Southern California so far?

Fiona Kitschin: It's been a soft landing for us, we've been in Los Angeles for five days doings shows and podcasts.

What sorts of things do you all do to unwind and stay sane on long tours?

Erica Dunn: We do whatever we need to stay healthy and make it work, whenever we need to kill time or make time we'll get beers, and do something fun, even if we're scraping the bottom of the barrel for cash sometimes. We've also been doing a lot of stretching, and we've been trying yoga sometimes.

Fiona: Gaz loves the backbend. Or the cobra form, that's kind of his thing. He's really flexible.

Erica: I think the biggest thing is we just always try to make jokes and make each other laugh. We've been working on an erotica book of the band too.

Fiona: Oh yeah that gets so silly, really raunchy stuff.

Have you guys been reading anything on tour?

Erica: Ooh yeah, I've been reading this novel, Edge of the Alphabet, by Janet Frame, she's an author from New Zealand. It's this great book about three different people and how their lives connect, it's sort of a realist novel, but there's these surrealist elements that come in and out to make things mysterious, it's a blast. We've also been all trying to read some Zora Neale Hurston together, specifically Their Eyes Were Watching God. That's the one with the dog bite right? Yeah, Whenever we go places we like to try and read something from there in order to try and get at least a little slice of the culture. It's never the whole picture of course, but we're headed to the Caribbean next and heard she had a way of capturing what it's like in some of those areas.

You all seem very close. What's the band like when you're not on tour?

Fiona: Oh we're like a big family. Between shows we all like to lay in bed and watch movies. We have our dogs all strewn about and we eat spaghetti, our lives really just feel like a family sitcom.

Tony: Like the Brady Bunch or something?

Fiona: Yes, exactly! And of course we rehearse a lot. We come up with songs in the studio, but rehearse more before going on the road. Gaz has all the studio things in his house so it's more relaxed.

What's the rehearsal process like when you're recording an album?

Erica: We come up with a lot of the songs in the studio. We'll come up with parts and record them, but sometimes we record mistakes and have to learn how to remake those mistakes, because that's what we end up liking about the sound and it becomes part of the song.

Fiona: There's also a lot of sounds that we make with the computers, so part of recording and the rehearsing is figuring out what can we do live, or how can we adapt a part of the recording to be done differently live because on the computer it's a bunch of things clipped and edited together.

Before we go, I was wondering how you all maintain your mental health across a tour? This album is especially really dark, we call it dystopian even. How do you stay mentally prepared to handle songs like that every night?

Erica: Playing them live is what gives us catharsis, there's a lot of energy and we get to release it with our audience. So yeah playing the live shows feels good, but also outside of shows, we like to find the absurdity in things, see beautiful things wherever we go, eat good food. But mostly, we make ourselves laugh.