Tunnel of Love have been rocking the NYC downtown scene for some time now. They’re filthy raw gladiators hitting you like a vial of pure adrenachrome. Guitarist/Singer Anthony stopped by the NYCTACO offices and we reminisced over you (my god).

Hola Anthony.  Does it sometimes scare you how much Tunnel of Love rocks?

Nah, it doesn’t scare me too much.  I think it might scare other people, but really any danger felt by audience members is purely theatrical.  It doesn’t seem like it at all but we’re actually pretty careful about not hurting anyone, or ourselves while rocking.  Sometimes we might damage the venue we’re playing, but chairs and light fixtures don’t feel pain.  And in fact, we never even had anyone yell at us for breaking these things.

At an early stage Tunnel of Love ditched the bass guitar and replaced it with extra angst.  What prompted this move?

Our bass player moved to San Francisco to become a hairdresser in 2001.  He was a life long friend of ours and had a pivotal role in forming the band and getting us our first gigs.  I don’t think the rest of us would have had the confidence to do this on our own.  But he is one of those people that when he becomes the best at something he turns his back on it because it’s not a challenge any more.  I think he felt that way about music, not Tunnel of Love specifically, but just music in general.  When he left, Andy took over the reigns and became the main creative force in the band.  And that dude is all angst.

Tunnel of Love audiences should steel themselves from the occasional attack or dry-humping.  Was there any audience member that attacked back?

I remember one time a guy in the audience pushed back on me so hard I went flying across the room, literally.  But after the show his buddies came to apologize saying that the guy is a sweetheart and just didn’t know his own strength.  Shit happens sometimes, and we have a tendency to attract crazy people.  But this is a very rare instance in many years of invading people’s personal space while we play.  The vast majority of people really love being fucked with, and on many occasions I’ve had people beg me to take advantage of them during the show.  Fans have also come up to me afterwards to say that they they were sad we didn’t grope them.

The spiritual home of Tunnel of Love: Brookline, Massachusetts or Brooklyn, New York?

It is and always will be Brookline, Massachusetts.  It’s still our home base, even though I’ve been living in Brooklyn for over 10 years (the other two members of TOL live in New England).  My brother and I as well as our ex-bassist all grew up in Brookline.  And at one point our drummer was living in a room in my parents house with us.  I also just think its cool to give a shout out to a pretty lame town near Boston that few people have heard about.  Brookline, is also the birthplace of JFK, Conan O’Brien, and Mike Wallace.

Where’s your favorite place to get a taco in NYC?

It’s a little joint in my neighborhood of Prospect Heights called Chavella’s.  At one point I was eating at this place 4 times a week.  It’s THAT good.

www.tunneloflove666.com

Check it – DFA Records (home of LCD Soundsystem, Hercules & Love Affair and our boy Tim Sweeney) hosted a party last Friday at the Museum of Modern Art – the acoustics were wack but the crowd was ready to dance.

Some exhibit about Color was open to the non-dancers, but NYCTACO didn’t give an f.  We were drunk and staring at the “hipsters”.