Polkadot Cadaver Is Coming to Tony V’s Garage on June 11 — Here’s Why This One Is Worth Your Thursday Night
You’ve probably walked past Tony V’s Garage a hundred times without knowing what’s happening inside on any given Thursday. Here’s what’s happening on June 11, 2026: Polkadot Cadaver, one of the most genuinely weird and genuinely heavy bands working in American rock right now, is setting up at 1716 Hewitt Avenue and playing until nearly midnight. Tickets are $23.18 on Eventbrite. Doors open before 8 PM. Angry Toons open the night.
That’s the short version. The longer version involves a 20-year creative obsession, a frontman who spent a decade rewriting what underground metal could sound like, and a venue that keeps pulling in acts Everett has no business booking — and yet somehow does.
What Polkadot Cadaver Actually Sounds Like
Polkadot Cadaver is the project of Todd Smith, who you might know better as the voice and primary creative force behind Dog Fashion Disco. If Dog Fashion Disco is the kind of band name that either stops you cold or makes you immediately pull up YouTube, you already have a sense of the territory. Smith has spent most of his adult life making music that doesn’t fit cleanly into any genre — avant-garde metal, experimental rock, dark circus, jazz-inflected hard rock — and Polkadot Cadaver is where that restlessness gets its most concentrated form.
The band formed in the mid-2000s, initially as something of a side project while Dog Fashion Disco was on hiatus, and quickly developed its own distinct identity. Where Dog Fashion Disco can be theatrical and sprawling, Polkadot Cadaver tends to be heavier, faster, and more unsettling. The aesthetic runs toward horror and dark carnival imagery — not in a theatrical Halloween-costume way but in a genuinely off-kilter, dissonant-chord, what-key-is-this way. If you want a reference point: think late-period Primus meets Dillinger Escape Plan meets a Tom Waits album recorded in a basement at 2 AM. That still doesn’t quite capture it, but it’s closer than “metal band.”
Albums like Megaton Shotblast (2009) and Sex Offender (2010) established the band’s reputation in the underground metal and experimental rock communities — not household names, but the kind of records that people who find them tend to keep for the rest of their lives. Smith’s vocal range is a significant part of what makes it work: he can go from a clean croon to a full thrash scream inside the same measure, and the band is tight enough to follow him wherever that goes.
Why Tony V’s Is the Right Room for This
Tony V’s Garage at 1716 Hewitt Avenue is a 400-capacity standing-room venue in the middle of downtown Everett. It books the kind of music that the Paramount doesn’t — touring acts who are too big for a bar but not quite at the theater level, with ticket prices that reflect that honestly. Twenty-three dollars gets you into a room where the stage is close enough that you can see the set list taped to the floor monitors.
That intimacy matters for a band like Polkadot Cadaver. This is not music that benefits from distance. The odd time signatures and left-field genre pivots land differently when you’re close enough to feel the bass in your sternum. Tony V’s has hosted enough touring metal and hard rock acts over the years to know how to run a show at this volume level — the sound system is built for it, the staff know what they’re doing, and the crowd that shows up on a Thursday night for a bill like this tends to be there because they did the research, not because they stumbled in off the street.
In a mid-size city with no dedicated all-ages metal venue and a concert market dominated by the Xfinity Center and the HET’s theater programming, Tony V’s fills a gap that matters. Polkadot Cadaver playing Everett at all is genuinely unusual — this is not a band that has historically saturated the Pacific Northwest touring circuit, and June 11 may be the only Washington date on this run.
Angry Toons Opens
Angry Toons is on the bill as the opening act. If you’ve been to enough shows at Tony V’s, you’ve probably encountered them — a local and regional punk-metal act that knows how to warm up a room without overstaying its welcome. Openers at this venue tend to take the set seriously, and getting the crowd moving before Polkadot Cadaver requires a band that can commit to the room’s energy. Showing up early is worth it. Doors and the opener are part of what makes a Thursday night at a 400-cap venue feel like an event rather than just a show.
The Ticket Math
$23.18 is the Eventbrite all-in price as of this writing, and the listing shows tickets in stock. The show is Thursday, June 11 — it starts at 8:00 PM and runs until 11:30 PM per the Eventbrite listing. That’s a real show, not a 45-minute set and out.
For context: a comparable touring underground metal act at a Seattle venue would run you $28–$35 plus the drive, parking, and the particular joy of standing in line on Capitol Hill in the rain. June in Everett is drier, the venue is walkable from the downtown core, and the ticket is cheaper. The math is not complicated.
Tickets are available now at eventbrite.com. Tony V’s Garage is at 1716 Hewitt Avenue, Everett WA 98201.
The Bigger Picture
Everett’s live music scene has a specific reputation problem: people who don’t live here assume there isn’t one. Shows at Tony V’s, APEX, and the Historic Everett Theatre have been quietly building a counter-argument to that for years, but the argument only works if people show up. Polkadot Cadaver is the kind of booking that — if the room fills — demonstrates that Everett can sustain a touring circuit for underground and experimental acts, not just cover bands and casino headliners.
That’s not why you should go. You should go because Todd Smith is a genuinely exceptional songwriter and performer and the show is $23 on a Thursday night twelve minutes from most of downtown Everett. But the side effect of going is that it tells the booking infrastructure something useful: that this city will show up for something strange and heavy if you give it the chance.
June 11. Tony V’s Garage. 8 PM. Polkadot Cadaver and Angry Toons. $23.18 at the door or on Eventbrite now while tickets last.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Polkadot Cadaver?
Polkadot Cadaver is an avant-garde metal and experimental rock project fronted by Todd Smith, the vocalist and primary songwriter of Dog Fashion Disco. The band blends heavy guitar riffs with jazz influences, dark carnival imagery, and unconventional song structures.
Where is Tony V’s Garage in Everett?
Tony V’s Garage is at 1716 Hewitt Avenue in downtown Everett, Washington 98201 — a standing-room live music venue with a capacity of approximately 400.
How much are tickets to Polkadot Cadaver at Tony V’s on June 11, 2026?
Tickets are $23.18 all-in and available through Eventbrite. The show starts at 8:00 PM and runs until approximately 11:30 PM.
Is Polkadot Cadaver related to Dog Fashion Disco?
Yes. Polkadot Cadaver is the primary side project and creative outlet for Todd Smith, the frontman of Dog Fashion Disco. The two bands share members and a similar avant-garde, dark aesthetic, though Polkadot Cadaver is generally heavier and more experimental in execution.