Will Wood and the Tapeworms - August 30th, 2026

I saw Will Wood and the Tapeworms tonight with my mom at the Paramount. This was probably the most chaotic and awesome show I've seen all year.

My mom and I got to the venue like an hour before the first opener went on, and the line was already wrapped around the corner. The wait wasn't too bad and we found our seats on the balcony. As we were waiting for the first opener Human Zoo to come on, some kids in the audience were holding up their cell phones with some random picture or meme or something on it and when everyone else saw it, they all cheered like crazy. I kept thinking Human Zoo was starting but nope. They did come on prompty at 19:30 and played their their set. They were kinda weird and funky and very effect-heavy. The front man was cracking jokes in between songs and the bass player in particular was killing it.

Next up at 20:15 was a group called That Handsome Devil. I liked them. They were similarly weird and funky, but fun. I honestly don't know how to categorize the genre of these guys, same with Human Zoo. The front man was all over the place dancing and jumping and it was pretty entertaining to watch. He kinda looked like he was trying to do a Fred Durst impression but with more dynamic vocals. I liked the two songs they did closer to the end, "Savages" and "Charlie's Inferno." I'm a sucker for double-time polka drumming. :3

Will Wood went on at 21:00 and absolutely rocked. I loved every second of it. They kicked things off proper with "Suburbia Overture / Greetings from Mary Bell Township! / (Vampire) Culture / Love Me, Normally" (Yes I'm putting the whole titles here) which was going great until about the (Vampire) Culture movement when Will halted the song. Apparently someone in the front row passed out and Will had to repeat himself a few times to get assistance from the venue. After the situation was all okay, they jumped right back into the song and it was awesome.

My favorite part of the show was the very next song they played which was "I / Me / Myself!" That’s probably my favorite song off The Normal Album and I did not think he was gonna play that tonight! He prefaced it by saying they were gonna play a “deep cut” and they DELIVERED and I promptly went feral. The coolest part about this performance was that they tweaked the ending lyrics. I think he replaced the ending with demo lyrics? Wherever they came from, it threw me off but it was so cool! He played a lot of great songs like "The Main Character" and "Front Street" before they played through the SELF-iSH ablum in its entirety. I loved hearing "2012" live.

Will Wood sounded great, his ability to sing and play piano at the same time is insane. And it’s not easy piano playing at all. Sometimes he tried playing with his right foot up on the keys and sometimes he was slamming down on the keys so hard it looked like the whole keyboard was gonna fall off the stand. At one point he got up and walked around the stage, picked up a pair of drumsticks, and starting drumming alongside the drummer. The drummer also periodically threw drumsticks to the other musicians on stage and they caught them.

The bass player particularly caught my attention as he was constantly hopping and skipping around the stage and was really fun to watch. During "Mr. Capgras Encounters a Secondhand Vanity: Tulpamancer's Prosopagnosia/Pareidolia (As Direct Result of Trauma to the Fusiform Gyrus)," he hopped into the crowd and started making his way to the moshpit and ran around with them. Everyone held on to each other in a big conga line and he was somehow still playing. Later, he balanced his bass upside-down on his fingers and kept it there for quite a few seconds.

The saxophonist at one point suck backstage and reappeared on the audience balcony opposite ours and started belting out a sax solo. Towards the end of the show, the guitarist, bassist, and saxophonist hopped into the crowd one last time and started playing on the edge of the floor. After they finished playing through SELF-iSH and left the stage, they were called back on for a encore and they played "6up 5oh Cop-Out (Pro / Con)." These guys are amazing performers and made the set feel engaging and super fun. Not that a Will Wood show isn’t engaging enough because I was having a total blast. And it was at the Paramount in Huntington, which is one of the best places to see a show on Long Island. Dare I say, the best?

Holy wow this was insane. What a way to close out the summer with Will Wood and the Tapeworms. I hope they tour again soon, you gotta see them live!

     

Suburbia Overture / Greetings from Mary Bell Township! / (Vampire) Culture / Love Me, Normally



I / Me / Myself



2012



6up 5oh Cop-Out (Pro / Con)