For their big concert this year, the Union Programs and Activities Committee that coordinate and put together concerts brought out The Living Tombstone, an electronic rock group that got its start on Youtube back in 2011. The team, composed of Yoav Landau who created the project, and Sam Haft who joined in 2016, built their brand around making fan songs for internet-favorite video games and TV shows. Notably, their Five Nights at Freddy’s song "Five Nights at Freddy’s" came out just two weeks after the first game was released in August 2014, and is often credited as the beginning of the game’s massive internet presence. Even recently, the song was featured as the credits track for the first FNAF movie. Since then they have amassed over nine million subscribers and rack up 7.3 million monthly listeners on Spotify, continuing to make new songs for existing IPs like "Baldi’s Basics", "Splatoon", and "Murder Drones", while also making original songs on their latest albums, such as Rust.
Despite their internet roots, The Living Tombstone had no trouble at all drawing a crowd for a live performance, especially for the chronically online RPI student body. The students showed up in force, stretching the line of entry past the East Campus Athletic Village and down Peoples Ave by the time the doors opened at 7 pm. Both The Living Tombstone and opener Boy Jr. sold merchandise before the event such as T-shirts, hats, and foam swords.
The show opened at 7:30 pm with Boy Jr, an alternative rock duo that introduced themselves to the crowd with pre-recorded audio, which exclaimed that they would “be playing music [that night].” They had five songs in total, including shout-along "Anxious Attachment Avoidant Attachment" and a punk rock cover of Rihanna’s "Shut Up and Drive". The opening act got the crowd hyped and ready for the main event.
The Living Tombstone came on at 8:30 in LED suits and light-up helmets, opening up with their FNAF hit “I Can’t Fix You”. They played through the set in costume and in character as the Tombsonas, alter-egos they use during live performances. Landau and Haft performed as vocalists Zero One and Rust, backed by guitarist Marcus Grimmie as Armstrong, bassist Guy Bernfield as Tesla, and drummer Thomas Silvers as Doc composed the members on stage.
They played from tracks old and new, featuring songs such as “Sunburn” and “Somebody” from their new Zero One and Rust albums, along with fan-favorites “No Mercy”, “I Got No Time”, and “Spooky Scary Skeletons” from their Youtube days. Dazzling the crowd with elaborate light sequences and a set list that just kept going, the crowd was on their feet and matching the energy of the band. In the middle of the set, Zero One took the lead vocals solo for their Splatoon song “Squid Melody” while Rust hung behind to draw a picture on a tablet. By the end of the song he revealed to the crowd his drawing, a picture of Puckman. The crowd responded with raucous cheers and began chanting Puckman’s name in a show of school spirit.
After another cult classic of theirs, “Die in a Fire”, the band left the stage behind in a trail of multicolored LEDs. After the audience’s shouts for an encore they returned, now with Landau and Haft with their helmets removed. They took a second to thank their instrumentalists, their manager, their costumer, their fans, and each other for the time they’ve worked together. They mentioned that this show at RPI marked their first college performance, which was met with a frenzy of excitement from the crowd. They then played “My Ordinary Life”, their by-far most popular song and the first song they wrote together. To end the concert, they came full circle and played their breakout song “Five Nights at Freddy’s”.
The concert ended at 10 pm, leaving with just as much energy as they began with. Sadly, it may be the last one for a while. The F27 Union Annual Report release shows that UPAC Concerts will be unable to fund a big concert for next year, and it is unclear when more funds will become available again. Still, The Living Tombstone was an amazing success with the RPI student body, and felt like a concert tailor-made for the crowd.
