After Two Sold Out Sydney Opera House Performances, TISM Bring A One-Off Exclusive Show To Melbourne’s PICA With Wankers Of The World, Unite!
by Paul Cashmere
TISM will return to Melbourne this May for a singular performance titled Wankers Of The World, Unite!, an exclusive one-off event at the Port Melbourne Industrial Centre for the Arts on Sunday 2 May 2026.
The announcement follows two sold out shows at the Sydney Opera House in April, where the band will perform their 1995 landmark album Machiavelli And The Four Seasons in full. The PICA concert is being positioned as a completely unique production, a standalone experience that will not be replicated elsewhere.
For a band that famously declared every performance after December 1983 a “reunion”, the Melbourne date adds another chapter to one of the most unusual and enduring stories in Australian music.
Formed in Melbourne on 30 December 1982 by Humphrey B. Flaubert, Jock Cheese and Eugene De La Hot Croix Bun, with Ron Hitler-Barassi joining soon after, TISM, short for This Is Serious Mum, built their identity around anonymity, satire and confrontation. Performing in balaclavas and elaborate costumes, the seven-piece collective blurred the lines between theatre, pop art provocation and razor-edged alternative rock.
Through the 1980s and 1990s, TISM cultivated a devoted underground following. Early releases such as Great Truckin’ Songs Of The Renaissance and Hot Dogma established their mix of melodic hooks and caustic commentary, but it was 1995’s Machiavelli And The Four Seasons that propelled them into national prominence. Featuring enduring tracks including (He’ll Never Be An) Ol’ Man River and Greg! The Stop Sign, the album reached the Australian Top 10, won the ARIA Award for Best Independent Release and achieved Gold certification. Three of its songs landed in Triple J’s Hottest 100 in 1995, cementing TISM’s unlikely but undeniable mainstream breakthrough.
Their trajectory was rarely smooth. Legal disputes over artwork, radio bans, volatile live shows and public feuds became part of the mythology. The 1998 album www.tism.wanker.com further divided opinion while expanding their audience, and 2001’s De RigueurMortis delivered another Top 40 appearance before the band retreated again.
Following 2004’s The White Albun, TISM quietly disbanded after a final performance at Earthcore. An almost 18-year absence followed, broken only by reissues, side projects and persistent rumours of a return.
That return came in 2022 with a series of secret Melbourne shows and appearances at the Good Things Festival. The reformation reignited interest in their catalogue and paved the way for 2024’s Death To Art, their first studio album in two decades. The album marked their highest chart position since Machiavelli And The Four Seasons and was supported by the Death To Art Tour, featuring guests including Machine Gun Fellatio, Eskimo Joe and The Mavis’s.
Throughout their career, TISM have maintained a complicated relationship with the music industry and media. Interviews often veer into absurdism, press statements arrive without warning, and their stage presentations routinely incorporate conceptual performance art elements. Yet beneath the provocation sits a disciplined songwriting core, shaped by sharp pop instincts and a distinctly Australian vernacular.
The upcoming PICA show arrives at a moment when TISM’s legacy is being reassessed by a new generation. Streaming platforms have broadened access to their back catalogue, vinyl reissues have restored long unavailable recordings, and the band’s recent activity has demonstrated that their appetite for disruption remains intact.
What Wankers Of The World, Unite! will entail remains deliberately opaque. Given TISM’s history, audiences can expect a production that extends beyond a conventional concert format. Past performances have included mass onstage impersonations, elaborate costumes, theatrical skits and unexpected reinterpretations of older material.
For Melbourne audiences, the 2 May event represents the only opportunity in 2026 to see the band outside the Sydney Opera House presentations. In typical TISM fashion, the show is framed as a singular occurrence, reinforcing the band’s long-standing habit of resisting repetition and predictability.
More than four decades after their formation, TISM continue to occupy a space entirely their own within Australian music. Few acts have sustained such a blend of anonymity, satire and commercial impact while remaining fundamentally resistant to categorisation.
For fans, supporters and the merely curious, Wankers Of The World, Unite! promises another chapter in a career built on defying expectation.
TISM – Wankers Of The World, Unite!
Sunday 2 May 2026, Melbourne, Port Melbourne Industrial Centre For The Arts
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