I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a more loveable band worthy of documenting than The Taxpayers. Tour videos can usually go one of two ways for me; either I’m appalled by how a band I love is filled with such supremely entitled assholes or they romanticize life on the road and all the beautiful people they meet along to the way to such an extent that I’m practically running out the front door with my guitar. It’s the difference between reading On the Road when you’re fifteen or The Air-conditioned Nightmare (I read both, which is probably why I never actually leave the house).
Getting to see The Taxpayers do what they do, with all the tornado finger dancing and Jimmy Buffet sing-alongs, only enriches my love for this band and desire to get in the van. You witness them frolicking on New Year’s Eve with pizza and party whistles, weirdly playing with Wu-Tang Clan, and busking with a Diamond Dave look-a-like to pay for parking. They take you to the storage unit they used to live in and explain the benefits of a doing a DIY tour.
Their charm is only matched by their talent. The total runtime for the video is under an hour and ends rather abruptly and ominously at a gas station when their van experiences some radiator troubles. I suppose that’s how all good tours end: too soon and with a sudden reentry to the comparatively gloomy world of bills and life-maintenance.
If you’re already familiar with The Taxpayers, this video will definitely confirm the validity of your appreciation. If you’ve never heard of them, it will expose you to a band that is everything a band should be: fun, thoughtful, energetic, and prime for the fucktastic jackassery. Highly recommended. –Matthew Hart (Clarke Howell, Clark Howell Productions. [email protected])