The half-naked band played at a charity party at the Mykolaiv Fleet Officers' House
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14:05, 19 February, 2024
On Sunday, February 18, a concert was held by the band «Hamerman Destroys Viruses» (HDV), the vocalists of which are known for their outrageous images, on the stage of the humanitarian headquarters of the HFO Volunteer Center in Mykolaiv, in the city's House of Fleet Officers.
Video recordings from the concert, as well as photos, were published by concertgoers on social networks, writes NikVesti.
«No matter how trashy it looks. But these guys significantly help the army», «The most adequate band of Ukraine came to Mykolaiv and did everything as it should», — this is what the residents of Mykolaiv wrote about Sunday's performance at the HFO.
The music and performance collective HDV positions itself as «the most adequate group in Ukraine», they work at the intersection of music, conceptual art and theater. Hammerman Destroys Viruses is a Ukrainian underground punk band founded in 1996 in Sumy. The texts of «Hamermans» are sarcastic, with profanity. Due to which the group periodically gets into scandals.
«Sex-robots are beautiful, even if they are sent to the grave for potatoes, they will still be beautiful,» the band announced their concerts, which took place last weekend in Odesa and Mykolaiv, with this caption.
In the photos and videos, you can see that artists Albert Tsukrenko and Volodymyr Pakholiuk performed half-naked — their costumes were lace, scotch tape and brooms.
Former comedian, volunteer Oleksandr Kolmen Serdiuk, who was the presenter at the event, wrote on his Instagram after the party in Mykolaiv: «I haven't been to Mykolaiv for 8 or 9 years. What does pain, loneliness and tension feel like? This is how many cities live now. Which are in limbo. When you don't know what will happen tomorrow and you know what will arrive. When people don't smile, because it's not funny. But at concerts, they tear themselves away at all costs, because it is not known when the next one will be and you have to live here and now. I feel the same in Kharkiv and will soon feel it in Zaporizhzhia. Let's hold on to each other.»
At the previous concert, which took place on February 10 in Vinnytsia at Docker Pub, the band collected 40,000 hryvnias for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as the artists themselves stated.
In an interview with Glavcom, a member of HDV, music journalist Albert Tsukrenko told about the gatherings they hold during their parties.
«We are not the organizers of meetings at all concerts. It happens that we know that 40% or 60% go to the Armed Forces. It happens that this money goes directly through our hands to units with which we are friends, who are fighting, or to medics. There are concerts that are completely charitable, there are those that are partly, completely commercial, it can be some kind of corporate event. At concerts in small towns, where there are gatherings for the AFU, less than 20-30 thousand hryvnias does not happen. In Kyiv, we regularly made more than UAH 100,000. In Lviv, we somehow collected UAH 130,000. This is a collection from one concert. I think it's a good result for a band of our size, not as big as other bands. That is to say, we are not Antibodies, we are not a widely popular group, but we have a very loyal audience and it is very good. Oleksandr Serdiuk, a former comedian and now a volunteer, also told me about this. Our fans love us very much and insist on fund-raising initiatives,» said Albert Tsukrenko.
As Espresso writes, both artists, in addition to music, are also engaged in other activities. Tsukrenko has been working as a journalist since the mid-2000s. First, he was the deputy editor-in-chief of the magazine Time out Kiev, then the editor-in-chief of the online publication «Nash Kyiv», the editor of the newspaper «Kapital», the editor-in-chief of the Cultprostir portal, the editor-in-chief of the TV channel «UA: First», worked on the radio, and now cooperates with hromadske
Volodymyr Pakholiuk, who first worked as a school teacher in Sumy, then at a newspaper, moved to Kyiv in 2006, and became the deputy editor-in-chief of a men's magazine.
Since 2001, the band has released 7 albums, they became laureates of the Chervona Ruta festival in 1999, winners of the Pearls of the Season competition in 2000, and several times headlined the music festivals «Fine Misto» (Ternopil), «Nashatyr» (Dnipro ) and «West Fest» (Rodatichi).
During a full-scale invasion, artists hold auctions at their concerts, raising funds for the needs of the military, as well as transferring money from the sale of tickets to their performances.
As a reminder, the House of Fleet Officers in Mykolaiv should remain a public space, and not become another business center, restaurant or residential complex, Volodymyr Aleksieiev, the coordinator of the volunteer staff of the «DoF», is confident.