The Residing Tombstone
The Residing Tombstone on the 9:30 Membership, October ninth, 2025
Oct 24, 2025
Images by Wendy Lynch Redfern
Plenty of dad and mom make the error of taking part in music for his or her younger children that they’ve been led to imagine they ought to play for them, relatively than music they could need to play for them. I’m speaking about limitless Disney songs, Raffi, The Wiggles, Excessive College Musical, Children Bop, Hannah Montana, and all that nonsense (though music from The Muppets and Sesame Avenue is suitable). Another is to get them into good music from start. Not less than that’s what my spouse Wendy and I did with our daughter Rose. Actually, when she was a child, one of many few issues that would 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). Considered 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 stay twice earlier than she was 4. Not like a lot of her mates, 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 youngsters to embrace no matter you think about to be good music (which is completely different for everybody) past apparent children music and the dangerous mainstream pop of the day. And that path includes simply taking part in good music within the automotive and at dinnertime from an early age and hopefully sufficient of it is going to sink in. However even then, they’ll finally 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 method—options from their friends.
For some time I began to fret that Rose’s appreciation of a few of the artists Wendy and I like had fully waned. In the direction of the top of elementary college lots of the music she and her mates needed to play within the automotive when given the prospect may very well be categorized as mind rot music—ridiculous songs impressed by quick meals industrial jingles and annoying tracks sung by children about taking part in the net online game Roblox. Rose was additionally being an increasing number of guarded concerning the music she was really 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 embody 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 an enormous fan of for a few years now could be The Residing Tombstone. When she noticed that they have been taking part in 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 have 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 exhibits as Homicide Drones and The Wonderful 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 following 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 Undertale) 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 an enormous fan of lots of geeky issues (Physician Who, Star Trek, DC and Marvel comics/films/TV exhibits, and way more), however I’ve to confess that whereas I appreciated The Residing Tombstone’s embrace of nerd-culture, I haven’t all the time totally appreciated the band’s music. However I went to the 9:30 Membership with an open thoughts, wanting 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 stay. Landau began the mission in Israel in 2011 as a YouTube channel, initially based mostly round My Little Pony fandom. In 2016 he moved to America, the place he met Haft and so they grew to become 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 high movies get tons of of hundreds of thousands of views (with their high songs getting comparable play numbers on Spotify). Getting ready for the present by listening to a playlist based mostly on The Residing Tombstone’s latest setlists, I did surprise 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 and so they complemented her Homicide Drones T-shirt. Little did we all know that at New York Comedian-Con it might be introduced that The Residing Tombstone had recorded a brand new music for Glitch based mostly 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 exhibits and was ending up his set after 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 have 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 have been mad for it. This was the youngest viewers I’ve seen on the 9:30 Membership—elementary aged children, tween, teenagers, and 20-somethings. Most older adults we noticed have been like us, dad and mom accompanying their children. Most of the attendees have been in cosplay, together with so much who have 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 stay band and every is clad in a loopy lit up costume representing a distinct 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 positively seem like characters from a online game dropped at 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 music used within the VR recreation Beat Saber. Their 2018 single, “Fundamentals In Conduct (Blue Model),” is the music by The Residing Tombstone most probably to get caught in my head and stay it was fairly amusing to see Landau and Haft do synchronized arm rolling dances to the music in full costume.
Haft mentioned “What I Need” was “the primary music requested that we weren’t taking part in. And we love this music and you’re keen on this music, so we thought, ‘Why not play this music.’”
2025 single “Step on Up” is the newest 5 Nights at Freddy’s music by the band. The monitor is concerning the character Montgomery Gator, who additionally seems within the music’s video, and options visitor vocals from McGwire, who is understood for his songs about One Piece, The Wonderful Digital Circus, My Hero Academia, and, after all, 5 Nights at Freddy’s. McGwire joined The Residing Tombstone to sing the music on the 9:30 Membership.
The band mentioned that “Someone” was one in all their favorites off Rust and one in all their favorites to carry out stay. It had a Muse vibe.
Landau and Haft pretended to have a disagreement concerning the online game Overwatch. “We have now an issue and we settle it like theater children,” 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 applicable it’s contemplating lots of the viewers is beneath 21. The humorous music is about getting so drunk you find yourself within the hospital. Although maybe the lyrics went over the heads of a few of the children.
Haft was excited that they weren’t solely taking part in “the legendary 9:30 Membership” however had offered it out. “Once we informed folks we have 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, declaring that the merch was tour unique. “You may solely get it within the room with us. That’s our method of claiming thank-you and recognizing how essential it’s and the way grateful we’re that you just received out of the home and received right here to spend an evening with us.”
“Spooky, Scary Skeletons” was initially a music 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 was the theme for the 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,” declaring 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 music. “That was superb! I received my steps in,” Haft exclaimed.
The viewers’s cellphones have been lit up and aloft, swaying forwards and backwards to the ballad “This Comes From Inside.” Then they carried out one other one in all my favorites, “Die in a Fireplace,” a music 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 hearth,” particularly when lots 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 mentioned, 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 needs me to be on stage to indicate you guys how a lot this music means so much to us. So right here’s the factor about Sam and why he’s so essential to all of this and why I like him a lot is that earlier than Sam—like I mentioned I’m a nerd who makes music on a pc proper, however due to Sam we grew to become rock stars child!” Landau yelled to cheers from the viewers.
Haft responded: “Nicely two can play at that recreation. Let me discuss this man Yoav for a minute. He talks an enormous recreation, he talks an enormous humility recreation about like, ‘Oh Sam introduced me right here and I don’t know if I might’ve accomplished this.’ From the second I met you you have been a fucking celebrity 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 automobile and I really feel so privileged on a regular basis to have a seat within the automotive.”
At which level they hugged and Landau added: “I really feel like it is a band with two pilots in it.”
It was clear that Haft and Landau had nice respect for one another and cherished working collectively. It’s a must to surprise 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 ideal fuckin’ encore coming,” introduced Haft as they launched into their ultimate songs. The entire set ended with 2014’s “5 Nights at Freddy’s,” in all probability their greatest recognized music (it at present has nearly 400 million views on YouTube). Regardless that it started its life as an unofficial music, it performed in the long run credit of the 2023 5 Nights at Freddy’s movie adaptation.
It was in all probability one of many nerdiest rock exhibits I’ve ever been to, but it surely’s fantastic a band like The Residing Tombstone exists. They need to even be taking part in Comedian-Cons throughout the land. However even for those who 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. Once I despatched photographs and movies from the live performance to mates, they’d ask in surprise, “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 mentioned excitedly after the present, as we have been strolling to the automotive. “It was essentially the most superb present I’ve ever been to. It was simply so superior and I wish to go once more.”
