Mugshots was taken over by three wild punk bands and an even wilder audience for Funhouse Oct. 11.
A make-shift stage was set up in the back corner of the small bar with nothing separating the artists from the fans. The night featured Thee Nodes, Blood Red, and TV Freaks who were all loud, aggressive, and well-received.
TV Freaks were in Ottawa a few months ago for Ottawa Explosion Festival before the release of their sophomore album, Two. Now with the album out on Bandcamp and for sale at their merchandise table, the band is doing tour stops every weekend after working full weeks.
“It has been crazy. I am overwhelmed by the the response. We play a show and look out into the audience and people are yelling the lyrics to a song that has barely been out a month. I’m not used to that shit,” drummer Nathan Burger said.
“I feel super humbled by it,” he said. “Whenever anyone that says they like the record it’s the best thing to hear.”
“That is the biggest thing for us. We don’t care about charts or record sales. It is just nice to play shows that are really well attended, where everyone is into it,” bassist Kevin Bell said.
TV Freaks’ latest album was released Sept. 23, showing how the band has changed from their self-titled debut.
“We recorded the new one with Shaun Pearson at Boxcar Studios in Hamilton. The last record was with Kenny and Ian at Tape and Plates and we recorded it in a barn,” Burger said. “So sonically it is different because this time we took it to the studio instead of doing in a barn. It is also different because Kevin wasn’t in the band then.”
Bell was added to the band last year after the previous member quit.
This addition caused the band to tighten up their style and explore other styles of punk. The four of them have great chemistry—which is evident both on and off the stage.
“It is usually just us being weird. Like nothing weird happens to us, we just make stuff weird. We get all drunk,” Bell said.
Burger said he agreed with that sentiment.
“Definitely, we played a house show in London that the old bass player from TV Freaks put on for us. We were definitely the drunkest people by the end of the night,” he said.
Bell said the band tries to have fun with their music and the way they approach their shows.
“We don’t think about tunes too much. We just do them. Then we give it some time. If it doesn’t work we drop it. Even then that is pretty rare, we are usually just stoked,” he said.
TV Freaks is a band that knows how to party. The audience was climbing on top of pews and jumping off of them in order to crowd surf. The mosh pit kept running into the singer while another person hung down from pipes in the ceiling.
Two bottled TV Freaks’ energy, but their show was a powerful release.
