TV GIRL

Pop Culture
Written By Lizzie T
Who What Where When
Not just a girl but instead three men; Brad Petering (Lead Singer), Jason Wyman (Drummer), Wyatt Harmon (Pianist) and one girl, Zoe Zeeman (Bassist), who make up the Indie-Pop Band Australian/New Zealand Tour Festival Hall 16th July 2024

*When you search ‘TV Girl band members’ Zoe Zeeman doesn’t appear! With the help of my friends and Reddit, we found her and deduced that it might be due to her only playing with them live (Reddit, 2022)

Pre-Show ~ 

Although TV Girl has been crafting their hypnotic pop music since 2010, they've recently gained a new wave of fans thanks to snippets of their songs going viral on TikTok (TN2 Magazine, 2023). As much as I'd love to brag about knowing them before they blew up, I didn't, so I was right there with all the newly acquainted fans. I wasn't originally planning to attend, feeling like a bit of an imposter, but I couldn't resist a night out with my friends. To prepare myself, I dove into their albums and EPs, both famous and obscure, so by the time the concert rolled around, I had become a more well-rounded fan.

The Show ~ 

I was pushing it to make it to this concert on time given I had just returned to Melbourne two hours earlier. Arriving home at 5:30 pm and heading out again at 6:30 pm, we arrived slightly before the doors opened. Taking our spot in the mosh we got to experience the opening act Surfing. They surfed through their songs quickly and didn’t interact with the audience much, so their set went by swimmingly (hehe). 


After getting through said act there was a quick intermission before TV Girl hit the stage. Not as shocked as I would have been if I hadn’t researched the band beforehand, I watched three middle-aged men take the stage, followed by a pleasant surprise: one girl (no, it wasn’t the TV Girl). 

The band started strong with many songs from their 2014 album French Exit. After the beautiful tracks of Pantyhose and Louise, Brad humorously announced that they’ll be playing songs that everyone likes (i.e. their TikTok songs), songs that only some of us will enjoy, and songs that no one likes! I can’t speak for everyone but they didn’t fulfill their last promise, as I was boogying to every song played. 

Some of my favourites included Cigarettes out the Window and Blue Hair, and of course the famous TikTok songs; Lovers Rock and Not Allowed that had the whole crowd yelling back to them. Whilst these songs and moments felt euphoric I couldn’t help but notice the ridiculous amount of people with their phones up, most notably the person in front of us who had been filming themselves singing the entire show. Don’t get me wrong I’m all for capturing the moment (see below), but this felt a little extreme.

Although the band initially resisted the Aussie shoey tradition, Brad finally embraced it, first half-heartedly, by placing the can in his shoe rather than just the liquid, before fully committing. 

Now the best part of the whole show you might ask, is Wyatt playing the triangle. First, it was just a small one that he rocked out on, but for the big triangle finale, he brought out a giant triangle, and safe to say nothing has made me scream as weirdly and excitedly as I did at that moment.

Review ~ 

Whilst TV Girl has some huge hits, their performance wasn’t without its negatives. For starters getting into the venue was a bit of a nightmare. It was a messy entry with so many lines, unclear signs, and workers sending us to the wrong doors. After that, we experienced one of the worst opening acts I’ve seen. Don’t get me wrong some of it was a vibe and I felt myself swaying along but most of the songs were mumbled and hard to get into. I understand that the genre of music was similar to TV Girl but that was the extent of their similarities, and as brutal as it sounds I don’t see why they opened for this bigger band. When it comes to the main act I have some mixed feelings. As previously mentioned I LOVED Wyatt's work on the triangle but thought Brad's constant hitting of his vape like a prop was a bit overkill. To top it off I’ve never heard TV Girls songs performed back-to-back like that, and started to notice a bit of a pick-me-boy vibe, i.e. “Why do girls never like me back, I’m such a nice guy” (Anderson, 2024). 

TV Girl definitely put on an enjoyable show, keeping us entertained during the gaps in songs, yet the overall ranking had to be…

See you at the next gig,

Lizzie T 

Lizzie T
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