Australian band fined $23,000 in damage to Sydney Opera House

Subversive art-pop group TISM has announced its first national headline tour in 30 years, after having caused nearly AU$19,000 (NZ$23,100) in damage to the Sydney Opera House.

Known for anarchic live shows, TISM (short for This Is Serious Mum) trod the boards at the iconic Australian venue in mid-April for two performances celebrating the 30th anniversary of their breakout third album, Machiavelli and the Four Seasons.

The album hit number eight on the ARIA album charts, won two ARIA Awards, and spawned subversive hit singles like ‘Greg! The Stop Sign!!’ and ‘(He’ll Never Be An) Ol’ Man River’, which both appeared in the top 10 of triple j’s Hottest 100 and achieved rotation on commercial radio.

The Sydney Opera House performances were an absurd spectacle involving elaborate costumes, giant puppetry and crowd participation.

A Sydney Opera House spokesperson confirmed to the ABC that during TISM’s performance on 10 April, “some damage occurred to a number of seats and sections of timber flooring in the Concert Hall”.

According to a report issued to TISM by the Sydney Opera House, the damage was sustained after members of the group and audience “walked and stood” on seats and armrests in the venue.

Additionally, the report observed “crowd surfing and uncontrolled audience interaction” as well as “liquids [including wine] spilled across seating areas” resulting in stains, breakages and misalignment to multiple rows.

Images of the damaged chairs, along with a floorplan of affected areas and social media footage evidence, were issued to TISM along with an itemised bill, including repairs and cleaning costs, amounting to $18,488.80.

A Sydney Opera House spokesperson said: “There was no broader impact to the venue and subsequent performances have proceeded as planned.”

Formed in 1982, TISM is arguably Australia’s biggest-ever cult act, a deeply satirical group with a taste for controversy and a litany of provocative music and public stunts to its name.

With members sporting pseudonyms and balaclavas, including ringleaders Humphrey B. Flaubert and Ron Hitler-Barassi, TISM were favourites of Melbourne’s underground music scene through the 1980s.

They achieved mainstream attention and success in the 1990s with albums such as Machiavelli and the Four Seasons, and www.tism.wanker.com.

Blending highbrow and lowbrow humour, couched in catchy hooks and music spanning dance, pop, rock and punk, TISM have pissed off as many people as they have delighted and entertained those who felt part of the joke.

Their caustic wit and famously chaotic interviews have skewered everything from celebrity worship to geopolitics and classicism, sex, pop culture and more. 

Following a hiatus, in 2022, TISM reunited at Good Things festival — their first live shows in 18 years. They followed up with releasing their seventh album, Death To Art, in 2024 and playing another run of east coast shows.

Following 30th anniversary performances at the Sydney Opera House and Melbourne’s PICA (Port Melbourne Industrial Centre for the Arts) earlier this month, TISM is taking their rebellious show on the road once again.

Billed as “TSIM, the No Mistakes tour” (yes, the deliberate typo is another sly joke), it marks the group’s first full-scale national tour in more than 30 years.

The group will hit Adelaide in July, Darwin in August, then Brisbane, Canberra, Perth, and back-to-back dates in Melbourne and Sydney in October.

A tongue-in-cheek statement, nodding to their recent fine, declares: “Because TSIM wants all your money, they will entice you to come to EVERY show on the tour by playing a RADICALLY DIFFERENT selection of fan favourites each night. Plus, all the other weird s**t that goes on at a TSIM show.”