The Residing Tombstone
The Residing Tombstone on the 9:30 Membership, October ninth, 2025
Oct 24, 2025
Images by Wendy Lynch Redfern
Quite a lot of dad and mom make the error of enjoying music for his or her younger youngsters that they’ve been led to imagine they ought to play for them, slightly than music they may need to play for them. I’m speaking about countless Disney songs, Raffi, The Wiggles, Excessive College Musical, Youngsters Bop, Hannah Montana, and all that nonsense (though music from The Muppets and Sesame Avenue is appropriate). An alternate is to get them into good music from beginning. Not less than that’s what my spouse Wendy and I did with our daughter Rose. The truth is, when she was a child, one of many few issues that might assist her sleep was the music of the Britpop band Suede (and never lullaby variations of their music, however their precise albums Canine Man Star and Bloodsports). Certainly one of my favourite movies of her as a toddler/early preschooler is her singing David Bowie’s “House Oddity” whereas she casually performs. Her first favourite band was the Scottish electro-pop trio CHVRCHES, who she received to see reside twice earlier than she was 4. Not like lots of her buddies, Rose (now 12) has by no means embraced Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter, and a latest playlist she put collectively included songs by Radiohead, The Smiths, Magdalena Bay, Mitski, Cults, Adrianne Lenker, Kate Bush, Cheekface, Paramore, M83, and Alex G (so many songs by him).
I’m not making an attempt to brag and say that my child has higher musical style than your child (though she would possibly), my solely level is that there’s a greater path to getting your kids to embrace no matter you contemplate to be good music (which is completely different for everybody) past apparent youngsters music and the dangerous mainstream pop of the day. And that path entails simply enjoying good music within the automobile and at dinnertime from an early age and hopefully sufficient of it would sink in. However even then, they may ultimately begin their very own musical discovery and start to get into artists you haven’t even heard of and may not even like all that a lot. Nowadays tweens uncover their favourite new artists by way of Spotify (playlists or algorithmic suggestions), songs utilized in movies on social media (particularly TikTok and YouTube Shorts), and the quaint manner—options from their friends.
For some time I began to fret that Rose’s appreciation of among the artists Wendy and I like had fully waned. In the direction of the top of elementary college plenty of the music she and her buddies needed to play within the automobile when given the prospect might be categorized as mind rot music—ridiculous songs impressed by quick meals industrial jingles and annoying tracks sung by youngsters about enjoying the net online game Roblox. Rose was additionally being increasingly more guarded concerning the music she was truly listening to. Now in her second yr of center college, she appears to have come again round to much less annoying sounds and a few of her favourite artists embrace the beforehand talked about Alex G (who we noticed carry out at The Anthem in Washington, D.C. simply two weeks in the past) and Magdalena Bay (who we noticed final yr and are seeing once more at The Anthem this Saturday), in addition to TV Lady and Icelandic singer Laufey.
One other band she’s been a giant fan of for a few years now could be The Residing Tombstone. When she noticed that they had been enjoying the 9:30 Membership in Washington, D.C., Rose begged us to go. Challenges abounded: D.C. is a three-hour drive for us, the present was on a college evening (a Thursday), and we had been already dedicated to go to 2 different live shows in D.C. that week, with Alex G on Tuesday (additionally a college evening) and Miki Berenyi Trio on Friday. She was additionally begging us to go to New York Comedian-Con the identical weekend as a result of Glitch Productions (the cool Australian indie animation studio behind such YouTube reveals as Homicide Drones and The Superb Digital Circus) was going to be there. Nicely New York is a seven-hour drive! So the comfort was to go to The Residing Tombstone, however that meant taking her out of faculty on Friday in order that we might keep in D.C. for the Miki Berenyi Trio present the subsequent day.
I in all probability wouldn’t have heard of The Residing Tombstone if it wasn’t for Rose. They make music impressed by video video games (together with 5 Nights at Freddy’s and Overwatch) and My Little Pony and gown in elaborate costumes onstage. Rose has by no means been into My Little Pony, however her most anticipated movie this winter is 5 Nights at Freddy’s 2 and he or she loves the video games too. For the uninitiated, 5 Nights at Freddy’s is a PG-13 horror franchise for tweens and teenagers about murderous animatronics at a disused pizza chain (assume Chuck E. Cheese) come to life. I’m a giant fan of plenty of geeky issues (Physician Who, Star Trek, DC and Marvel comics/films/TV reveals, and rather more), however I’ve to confess that whereas I appreciated The Residing Tombstone’s embrace of nerd-culture, I haven’t at all times absolutely appreciated the band’s music. However I went to the 9:30 Membership with an open thoughts, desirous to help Rose’s personal musical tastes.
The digital rock group consists of Israeli-American producer Yoav Landau and American singer Sam Haft, with others becoming a member of them reside. Landau began the venture in Israel in 2011 as a YouTube channel, initially primarily based round My Little Pony fandom. In 2016 he moved to America, the place he met Haft they usually turned a duo, releasing their debut album zero_one in 2020 and their sophomore album, Rust, earlier this yr. On YouTube they’ve amassed 8.71 million followers and their prime movies get a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of views (with their prime songs getting related play numbers on Spotify). Making ready for the present by listening to a playlist primarily based on The Residing Tombstone’s latest setlists, I did marvel how these on-line numbers would switch to the actual world on the 9:30 Membership, which has a capability of 1,200.
We left for D.C. in a rush quickly after college was out, as I’d organized for Wendy to take backstage portraits of The Residing Tombstone, which additionally meant Rose might meet them. Landau and Haft couldn’t have been nicer to Rose they usually complemented her Homicide Drones T-shirt. Little did we all know that in a livestream that weekend it could be introduced that The Residing Tombstone had recorded a brand new track for Glitch primarily based on Homicide Drones. Rose was given a guitar decide by the band and quizzed on her favourite Residing Tombstone songs.
There have been numerous openers, together with LongestSoloEver (aka New York-based musician Dean DiMarzo), who additionally creates music impressed by video video games, films, and TV reveals and was ending up his set once we arrived. We did see most of Tokyo Machine, an EDM DJ and producer who wore a facemask and a Again to the Future T-shirt. He turned the 9:30 Membership right into a cyber rave. Glowsticks had been considerable. The bass was loud. He did a remix of the Tremendous Mario Bros. theme, amongst different online game impressed tracks, and the children within the viewers had been mad for it. This was the youngest viewers I’ve seen on the 9:30 Membership—elementary aged youngsters, tween, teenagers, and 20-somethings. Most older adults we noticed had been like us, dad and mom accompanying their youngsters. Most of the attendees had been in cosplay, together with lots who had been impressed by 5 Nights at Feddy’s.
Then The Residing Tombstone took the stage to wild applause and it was fairly a sight to see. There are 5 members within the reside band and every is clad in a loopy lit up costume representing a unique Tombsona character. Landau is zero-one and Haft is Rust, therefore the names of their two albums. The lineup additionally options guitarist Armstrong (actual identify Marcus Grimmie), bassist Tesla (aka Jonathan LaMarche), and drummer Doc (aka Thomas C Silvers). Visually they undoubtedly seem like characters from a online game delivered to life. Or like Gwar meets Tron, which was becoming as Tron: Ares was opening the day after the live performance.
The band opened with their 2016 single “I Can’t Repair You,” which relies on the online game 5 Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location, and adopted it with “I Wanna Be a Machine,” a 2022 track used within the VR sport Beat Saber. Their 2018 single, “Fundamentals In Conduct (Blue Model),” is the track by The Residing Tombstone most probably to get caught in my head and reside it was fairly amusing to see Landau and Haft do synchronized arm rolling dances to the track in full costume.
Haft stated “What I Need” was “the primary track requested that we weren’t enjoying. And we love this track and you’re keen on this track, so we thought, ‘Why not play this track.’”
2025 single “Step on Up” is the newest 5 Nights at Freddy’s track by the band. The monitor is concerning the character Montgomery Gator, who additionally seems within the track’s video, and options visitor vocals from McGwire, who is understood for his songs about One Piece, The Superb Digital Circus, My Hero Academia, and, after all, 5 Nights at Freddy’s. McGwire joined The Residing Tombstone to sing the track on the 9:30 Membership.
The band stated that “Any person” was certainly one of their favorites off Rust and certainly one of their favorites to carry out reside. It had a Muse vibe.
Landau and Haft pretended to have a disagreement concerning the online game Overwatch. “We’ve an issue and we settle it like theater youngsters,” joked Haft, earlier than they launched into their 2017 single “No Mercy,” which is about arguments between Overwatch gamers. The 2011 single “September” was one of many earliest songs the band carried out and is impressed by My Little Pony, with the band giving a shout out to the Bronies (aka grownup My Little Pony followers) within the viewers.
“Drunk” is without doubt one of the hottest songs on zero_one, though one wonders how acceptable it’s contemplating plenty of the viewers is underneath 21. The humorous track is about getting so drunk you find yourself within the hospital. Although maybe the lyrics went over the heads of among the youngsters.
Haft was excited that they weren’t solely enjoying “the legendary 9:30 Membership” however had offered it out. “After we informed folks we had been coming to D.C. they requested, ‘Are you going to 9:30?’ And sure, we’re right here in 9:30 and also you packed the home!”
Haft then thanked the staff promoting their merch, mentioning that the merch was tour unique. “You possibly can solely get it within the room with us. That’s our manner of claiming thank-you and recognizing how necessary it’s and the way grateful we’re that you simply received out of the home and received right here to spend an evening with us.”
“Spooky, Scary Skeletons” was initially a track by Andrew Gold from his 1996 album Halloween Howls: Enjoyable & Scary Music. Sure, that’s the identical Andrew Gold whose 1978 soft-rock hit “Thank You for Being a Pal” was became the theme for the Nineteen Eighties sitcom The Golden Women, in a canopy model by Cynthia Price. In 2013 The Residing Tombstone remixed “Spooky, Scary Skeletons,” which made it a Gen Z hit.
“Are you guys feeling spooky?” requested Landau earlier than they launched into “Spooky, Scary Skeletons,” mentioning that there have been lots of people in costume on the present and that Halloween was solely weeks away. Haft and Landau highfived on the finish of the energetic track. “That was wonderful! I received my steps in,” Haft exclaimed.
The viewers’s cellphones had been lit up and aloft, swaying backwards and forwards to the ballad “This Comes From Inside.” Then they carried out one other certainly one of my favorites, “Die in a Fireplace,” a track impressed by 5 Nights At Freddy’s 3 and directed on the villainous William Afton. Though, it was a bit unnerving to listen to an viewers sing in unison “I hope you die in a fireplace,” particularly when plenty of the viewers are tweens and teenagers!
Haft and Landau received unmasked for the encore and Landau delivered a heartfelt speech to their followers. “I actually like performing as zero_one, however the second I take off my outfit I’m like, ‘Oh, I actually don’t like this,’” he stated, wanting all the way down to illustrate his shyness in revealing his true self to the viewers. He then talked about assembly Haft and the way he designed the Tombsonas characters. “If it wasn’t for Sam I don’t know if I’d be doing this model of the Tombsonas right here on stage with you guys. I’m very socially anxious, however music is my life and Sam actually desires me to be on stage to indicate you guys how a lot this music means lots to us. So right here’s the factor about Sam and why he’s so necessary to all of this and why I really like him a lot is that earlier than Sam—like I stated I’m a nerd who makes music on a pc proper, however due to Sam we turned rock stars child!” Landau yelled to cheers from the viewers.
Haft responded: “Nicely two can play at that sport. Let me discuss this man Yoav for a minute. He talks a giant sport, he talks a giant humility sport about like, ‘Oh Sam introduced me right here and I don’t know if I might’ve executed this.’ From the second I met you you had been a fucking famous person man! You might be simply an absolute genius and also you blow me away with every little thing you do. It’s such a privilege to have the ability to do that collectively. You constructed this unbelievable car and I really feel so privileged on a regular basis to have a seat within the automobile.”
At which level they hugged and Landau added: “I really feel like this can be a band with two pilots in it.”
It was clear that Haft and Landau had nice respect for one another and beloved working collectively. It’s a must to marvel if they’re this heartfelt with one another at each present or if this was distinctive to that evening.
“Please fasten your seatbelts, as a result of we’ve received an awesome fuckin’ encore coming,” introduced Haft as they launched into their last songs. The entire set ended with 2014’s “5 Nights at Freddy’s,” in all probability their greatest recognized track (it presently has nearly 400 million views on YouTube). Although it started its life as an unofficial track, it performed ultimately credit of the 2023 5 Nights at Freddy’s movie adaptation.
It was in all probability one of many nerdiest rock reveals I’ve ever been to, nevertheless it’s great a band like The Residing Tombstone exists. They need to even be enjoying Comedian-Cons throughout the land. However even when you don’t completely connect with the music or don’t get all of the references and even perceive what they’re singing about, the entire expertise is an actual spectacle to behold. After I despatched images and movies from the live performance to buddies, they’d ask in marvel, “Who’s this?”
However most significantly, what did Rose assume? “My favourite one was ‘This Comes From Inside,’ then in all probability ‘My Odd Life,’ then my third favourite was ‘Drunk,’” she stated excitedly after the present, as we had been strolling to the automobile. “It was probably the most wonderful present I’ve ever been to. It was simply so superior and I wish to go once more.”
