It’s Saturday night at Sydney’s Manning Bar and the queue is already curling around the sandstone steps like a centipede of anticipation. Inside, LED lights glow in gamer green and blood-orange red, washing over the faces of a crowd that feels like Reddit threads come to life—cosplayers, hardcore fans and those just here to scream every lyric back at a band that has redefined internet music.
The Similar, who are from LA, ignite the stage with jagged alt-rock hooks and caffeinated energy, snapping the crowd into motion. But it’s The Living Tombstone everyone’s here for—Yoav Landau and Sam Haft, the duo who turned niche fandom into a full-blown cultural force. Haft joins the Similar on stage for a rousing version of Chappell Roan’s ‘Pink Pony Club.’
When they finally step out, Haft and Landau are barely human—dressed like futuristic warriors from a late-night boss battle, lit up in LED circuitry and exosuit silhouettes. It’s as if Daft Punk crash-landed in a Discord server. Beside them, the rest of the band look equally unearthly—part robot, part rave avatar. The crowd loses it as they launch into ‘I Want To Be A Machine’ and it’s instantly chaos. Faces glow from phones capturing the moment, but the real electricity is analogue—sweat, limbs, bass drops you can feel in your teeth.
There’s something strangely unifying about a crowd moshing to lyrics about algorithmic collapse and digital loneliness. This is cyberpunk theatre—angry, joyful, utterly alive.
Check out our gallery below.
The tour moves to Melbourne next, tickets HERE.
Images Deb Pelser
