Tartar Control at the Comedy Central Stage

Tartar Control does an amazing job bouncing between a comedy and punk show. By the Barricade caught the trio at their show April 16th at the Comedy Central Stage in Los Angeles.  Consisting of “Good Mormon” boys Elder Sean Hart and Elder Robert Selander and their sidekick Robot, the band is like no other within the punk scene.  If you like irreverent punk music (as most is) and want to laugh hysterically, you should catch this act.

To set the mood at the theater, guests were greeted by an elder who distributed “The Tartar Control Book of Hymns” and encouraged the audience to take their seats.  The album “Young Mormon’s Sing” was spinning on the turntable to further set the peaceful, somber mood that was soon to be shattered when Sean and Robert took the stage and joined Robot.   Between comedic banter and interaction with the crowd, the Mormon boys presented a message not necessarily endorsed by the LDS community.  Their clever dialogue was delivered as upright, clean cut young men, but the content of their words was not even close to the message typically delivered.

_DSC0585Kicking off the set with “Jesus is Love,” a raucous punk song that has Robert belting out lyrics such as, ‘I can break your face, I can break your shins, I know Jesus Christ will forgive my sins.’  Sean does a great job on guitar and backup vocals all the while maintaining an angelic smile despite the contrasting lyrics he is singing.  Robot holds down the rhythm and has several speaking parts.  When the boys do not like the direction Robot’s dialogue is going, they acknowledge the problem of having a Robot “built by laborers found outside of Home Depot.”  In reality, the sophistication of Robot and his flow with the guy’s entire set is quite impressive.

Robert interacted with the crowd with stage diving (or climbing since this venue had amphitheater style seats), and even pulled out a group to mosh on stage.  As is typical for comedy shows, the guys picked on members of the crowd and did a lot of spontaneous humor and picked on the crowd for their tooth brushing hygiene habits. The “Book of Hymns” previously distributed to the crowd contained the lyrics to all the songs and was the set list for the night.  The boys worked their way through crowd favorites such as “Brush Your Teeth,” “Smoking Crack,” and finished up with “Peach Cobbler Party” with sing along parts.  The crowd begged for an encore and the group returned for a very hardcore punk version of “A Whole New World,” from Disney’s Aladdin._DSC0601

Each guest was treated to hugs at the door from Sean and Robert as well as a complimentary DVD of their TV pilot.  Quite a lot of fun, laughter and entertainment for one night!  By the Barricade strongly recommends seeing a Tartar Control live show if you are at all a fan of the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon.  They have several dates scheduled in May in the Los Angeles area and if you live nearby, do yourself a favor and get to a show!  If you can’t make it out visit www.tartarcontrolisyourfriend.com for videos  and updates for the band. These bits are not quite as good as seeing them live, but you will laugh nonetheless.

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