A Highly Suspect dinner party disaster

This shockingly good promo for These Days, a track from US rock band Highly Suspect’s album MCID, appears at first to be referencing the world’s attempt to adjust to the ‘new normal’ under pandemic conditions. 

Opening with audio of diners bickering – “Can’t we just have a normal conversation? This is not normal! Your normal smells like ass!” it goes on to depict a fella (Tony Cavalero from HBO's The Righteous Gemstones and Netflix's The Dirt) enduring a family thanksgiving dinner that descends into violence and mayhem. 

The patriarch literally spits fire and flirts weirdly; Mother sneaks off to the loo to smoke crack and post porn on social; food and rude gestures are flung around the table and a disabled senior gets skewered by an arrow. The original concept was to highlight society’s hypocrisy yet it’s depiction of family dysfunction could almost depict a fraught quarantined family supper gone seriously awry... 

Cavalero commented; "My character represents the point of view of the 'everyman,' in a situation that represents a much bigger picture. I love the juxtaposition between what is presented and what’s really happening behind the scenes. It’s that kind of hypocrisy that we’re really struggling with in society right now.”