The Toxhards Bring Coffee and Theatrics to Atlanta’s Smith’s Olde Bar on Get Destructive Tour
The Toxhards are one of the best word-of-mouth bands touring right now. I’m willing to bet any amount of money that no one in the Smith’s Olde Bar crowd in Atlanta heard The Toxhards for the first time on the radio or in a car ad. Their success has seemingly been a successful game of telephone – someone heard of them from a friend who was shown a video by another friend who actually experienced them after getting dragged to a live show.
In November 2025, I willingly went to a show because my friend, who thinks she became part of the chain of messengers through her eccentric Spotify algorithm, had been talking about The Toxhards and their unpredictable live show for years. I decided to go in blind. Not only did I not watch any videos ahead of time, I didn’t even give Your Neighborhood, their debut, concept album that had come out in April, a spin. That means I was introduced to dancing, Sexy Nixon, and the greatest three-act tale of pig martyrdom ever told in real time. When I met Alan Powers, the main vocalist and multi-instrumentalist who feels most like the ringleader of this beautiful chaos, post-show, I told him I was going to photograph his band the next time I saw them. I became a new messenger on the telephone line.
For this leg of their perpetual touring, which they’re calling the Get Destructive Tour, they picked up Kate Cosentino as support. About three years earlier, Cosentino was featured on The Voice where she sang a version of Dionne Warwick’s “I Say A Little Prayer” that made Niall Horan and Kelly Clarkson beg to be her coach. Horan won the plea.
After winning over the millennials with a cover of Metric’s “Black Sheep,” she moved into playing her own jams. Cosentino writes sharp, experience-rich stories filled with wit and a strong — and relatable — underlying bemusement about being what passes as an adult. Without her band, Cosentino performed guitar-only versions of “Two Kids in a Trench Coat,” “Throw Myself at the Wall,” and “ASL” from her debut album released this year, Weirdly Normal. The only break from the tongue-in-cheekness of the set was “Proud of Me,” which Cosentino explained was written as a tribute to her mother, who was present at the show and helping to sling merch while proudly singing every word of her daughter's set.
The Toxhards kicked off their set with “Beatrice” and swiftly brought the crowd into their shenanigans with “(The) Coffee Song.” Guitarist Emerson Harris, who trades vocal and bass duties regularly with Powers, sang about his homicidal and suicidal tendencies due to his caffeine addiction while Powers got an audience member to take over on bass for him. After that was sorted, he ran into the crowd and served coffee from a pot that had just been brewed on stage. Most of it was served in cups, but anyone who preferred some poured directly into their mouths weren't denied service. This is a damn Toxhards show after all. The only requirement is heart. Decorum can be left at the door-um.
Between their new classic bop, “ALLIGATOR CROCODILE,” and a dust-off of “Be My Chompy,” the band introduced two new songs from their sophomore album that they teased: “Paint It Baby Blue” and “Noah.” Both feel like the band embracing being fun without being too absurd, even though they’re awfully good at the absurd.
One of the things that stuck with me after my first show was just how much heart was on display. Their ability to run the gamut of emotions without it ever feeling jarring or misplaced could be its own think piece. Between the open-mouthed coffee pouring and the pre-taped memorial video for their drummer who got killed off between songs somehow, there are beautiful, grounded moments in their set. “October” is a song about loss that broke every heart in the room, penned by Powers pretty early in the Toxhards’ formation.
They also played one of my personal favorites, “Apple TV,” a song that evokes shades of early Green Day and The Beatles. For one section, most of the band left the stage, giving Harris space to perform a song alone with home movies splayed across the wall behind him. “Johnny” was written by Harris as an ode to his musician father who passed away in 2020. Time has seemingly made the song easier to sing. Before the mood could get too heavy, Harris quickly explained that his father was much older when he was born and around eighty when he died.
They also gave Casey Michael Donovan, their drummer, space to sing a few songs. “Ængus, The Prize-Winning Hog,” a song with a title that feels like it fell off the back of a Primus album, gave the band a bit of a viral moment three years ago when they uploaded a clip to Tiktok of them performing it at a wedding. More than the sheer ridiculousness of it is the commitment to the bit from Donovan, who is operatically belting out the verses in a suit under the inflatable pig costume. It’s performed this way at the shows as well, which has made it one of the most constant staples in their set. In August, the band released another Donovan-led single called “Mr. Clifford,” which effectively axed part two of Ængus’ story, “The Butcherman’s Lament” At least at my show. Those crazy kids rearrange the set every night.
For the encore, they sang the inspiration for the tour’s name, “Get Creative! Or Get Radicalized!” and quite literally waved goodbye to the audience with a version of Sound of Music’s “So Long, Farewell” before packing their gear themselves and taking their two-minivan caravan to the next city.
The Toxhards clearly do not take themselves seriously. It also doesn't feel like they want you to take them seriously, either. But it's hard to deny that they take what they do very seriously, and if you see them coming to a venue near you, you should seriously buy a ticket.
