The Living Tombstone @ the Van Buren in Phoenix, AZ
If we are being completely honest, we have no idea how we landed covering such an amazing yet unconventional. This author’s mind is still trying to adjust to the way internet artists are carving out a space in the music scene. In this one’s teen years, they could never dream of all the meme tracks and songs inspired by video games they fell in love with. The Punk Pack is no stranger to the art but to attend a live show is the next level of awesome. Seeing the amazing talent of The Living Tombstone with Mega Ran and TryHardNinja felt like having the internet injected into real life.
This was the Pack’s first introduction to TryHardNinja when he started his backing track and sprung forth with energy to the front of the stage. Yet, opening with a FN@F (Five Nights at Freddy’s) song was certain not to fail with this crowd. Going through his discography, there are many video game tracks that matched with our own gaming interests such as Minexraft, Poppy’s Playtime, and even Garten of Banban. It was to great surprise to find out after the show that we had heard TryHardNinja in the past with a decade old Minecraft machinima series made to their music. Each track hits if your are a fan of electronic rap though that’s not all that TryHardNinja brings in their collection. The Punk Pack highly recommend TryHardNinja if your are a fan of indie horror or just love independent music.
Mega Ran was an artist since the Punk Pack has been aware of him nearly as long as the pair have been streaming and knowing that he’s an Arizona local, we’ve made a point of promoting Mega Ran long before this opportunity. It was even more of a delight to bump elbows with him during TwitchCon 2024. The clean beats and styling of Mega Ran are always a relaxing vibe. Learning that he used to be a teacher granted a new perspective on Ran’s work. Hearing the crowd scream back “Give me the fruit!” took this reviewer back to their grade school days attending one of the many educational assemblies. yet, Mega Ran brings an energetic fire that makes you feel like you’re just at the party and not listening to a man who will encourage you more than themselves. As much as we would love to collaborate with Mega Ran, it was time to say goodnight and make room for the headliner. We’ll miss you Ran! Until next time.
The Living Tombstone had everyone nearly jittering out of their own skins; the excitement was near boundless. Opening with “I Can’t Fix You” set the tempo for the rest of their set. With a lot of popularity surrounding their FN@F tracks, them even being used in the Five Nights at Freddy’s movies one and two with “Five Nights at Freddy’s” and “It’s Been So Long” respectively. With the second song being one of this writer’s personal favorites, “I Wanna Be A Machine” which this one first encountered on the Beat Saber track list and is still the only base track on the game they’ve played. They could envision the beats floating in the virtual environment as they have been practicing on harder difficulties before the show. Getting a moment to hear from the band, it also offered a moment for one’s eyes to take in the outfits they wear on tour. Honestly, the Pack didn’t expect them to keep most of it on in Arizona. Yet, only jackets got removed with the main costume still holding the illusion of a group of digital agents jamming on stage. Each and every song was a banger as if an online meat-space party was going to last all night. When their first FN@F song was up, nearly everyone in the room broke out in shrieks of approval. Having CG5 - another AZ local - join them for a blend of the original Charlie’s remix, “I’ve Got No Time.” Their set demonstrated just how large of a body of work the band has. There were as many songs that they were familiar with as there were ones they hadn’t. That only made each track the Pack knew even sweeter.
Closing the show, Zero_One and Rust took off their masks to address the audience and thanking them for all the love and support. Zero_One, the band’s founding member back in 2011, expressed their journey through neurodivergence and how music has been an invaluable tool to connect with others when connecting itself can be a struggle on its own. Seeing how The Living Tombstone has built bridges to connect an entire community. A few songs followed as their own encore as the last 30 minutes of the show was connecting with the people behind the music we’ve all fallen in love with. With this being the Punk Pack’s first live Living Tombstone show, it is guaranteed that they would attend another in a heartbeat. As a teen, this author only hoped of seeing so much nerdcore on one stage but never thought it’d see reality. Living Tombstone proved that wrong and made it happen. One can only guess what internet craze they’ll write a song for next, but the Pack can’t wait to hear it.
