I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: September 29, 2019] Man Man

I saw Man Man open for Gogol Bordello back in 2014.  I really enjoyed them and at that time I wrote:

It was an insane and wild show from start to finish from crowd to band and I would absolutely see them again.

It took five years for Man Man to play anywhere near where I was again and there was no way I was missing this show–seeing them headline in their home town was the icing on the cake.

I had assumed that Man Man would be the wildest act on the bill.  So it was amusing that they followed Sun Ra Arkestra–who has been doing wild for over fifty years.

Like Sun Ra, the guys in Man Man were all wearing decorative ponchos.  But unlike the Arkestra, all of their ponchos matched–indeed, so did all of the clothes under the ponchos, down to the fact that they were all wearing the same shoes.

But before they came out in ponchos, they set up their gear and Honus Honus sat down in street clothes (which means he must presently be Ryan Kattnert) at the keyboard right in front of us.  He then saw that there was a small table between the stage and the audience with big signs that said DO NOT SIT.  I’m not sure why they are there, but they are always there.  He looked at the table, looked at us, then gentle stepped on it and hopped twice, nodded to us and left.

I assumed that he was going to do something similar in the show but he never did.

In fact, while the band was setting up, the crowd was getting riled up.  I was actually getting a little nervous that this was going to be a wild moshing crowd (especially given the last show’s insane crowd).  I even considered moving out from the front center of the crowd.  But it was actually too crowded to move.  Fortunately, the band was so captivating that everyone seemed content to watch them and sing along.

After a short time all six Man Man men came out.  The band appears to be entirely different since the last show.  For this tour the band is of course Honus Honus: (vocals, piano and ever so much more); Jazz Diesel [Dylan Ryan]: drums; Mature Kevin: (marimba, bass, melodica, trumpet, clarinet, bass clarinet); Thu Butler: (saxophone, clarinet); Brett Morris: (guitar, marimba, percussion, keys) and King Cyrus King [Cyrus Ghahremani]: guitar, bass, keys, synths (and everything else that Honus Honus doesn’t do).

Also like Sun Ra they opened with a kind of improv piece that was kind of a warm up before the proper songs started.  The settlist calls it “Tone Poem“–it’s very possible it’s not an improv piece at all–who knows.  It segued into the wonderfully catchy “Cloud 9“–one of at least 7 new songs they played tonight.

So it is quite evident that Man Man are rather silly and chaotic.  But, their musicianship skills are absolutely top notch.  And the band is tight as a drum when they’re not being crazy–and even when they are.

Even though the set featured a lot of new songs, it wasn’t all new.  They went straight from a new song back to their debut album with the wonderfully weird “Zebra” which featured a melodica and a whole mess of percussion.  It should be noted that every member of the band plays percussion–pretty much all the time.  And that percussion led to some of the more interesting pictures of the night (Man Man is always doing something photo-worthy).  At the bottom of th epost I’m including a bunch of snaps of fun things I saw at the show, including bells, sets of keys used as percussion, mallets for marimbas, an owl that I assume made noise since Honus Honus held it up to the microphone while its eyes glowed red, a goat’s head and a picture of Shia LeBeouf.

The animal theme remained when “Zebra:” turned into “Goat” another new song.  Honus Honus indicated this with what I am quite certain was not a goat’s head, but was a close approximation.  Then things grew very quiet as Honus Honus sang a lone and sat back from the keyboard as everyone else was silent.  After a pause, Mature Kevin said something to which the band sang “Who the fuck are you?”  He replied. ” My name is Mature Kevin” and the band sang him the Happy Birthday song.  Why?  I have no idea.

Continuing with some more insanity, at some point during “The Ballad of Butter Beans,” saxophonist Thu Butler donned a bald wig and boxing gloves and proceeded to fight his shadow or something.

You’ll note that the set up of the band is rather unconventional as well.  Honus Honus on piano and Jazz Diesel on drums face each other right in the front of the stage.   When I saw them last time, the drum and piano were reversed, and they had a moment in one song when both guys jumped off their seats at the exact same moment–that was when I knew I had to see them again.

The rest of the band stands behind them.  Most of them switch instruments quite often. I saw at least two of them play the double neck guitar.  Every member of the band hit something with a stick.

They played a few more new songs–each as compelling as the older ones (I’m really looking forward to that new album).

For all of the weirdness of Man Man, they are absolutely capable of writing a massively catchy song that should have been a massive hit.  That would be “Head On” from the last album they released back in 2013, On Oni Pond.  The crowd went bananas for this song (and really for every other song) and I was pleased that they’re not going to skip their hit.

This also proved to be the start of a whole bunch of older songs (which made the crowd go even crazier).  They played most of their older songs from Rabbit Habits and Life Fantastic.  Like “Piranhas Club with it’s insane catchy doo-wop chorus.”

When that song ended, the band broke into the theme from Law and Order.

I’m not exactly sure why, but it worked as a transition to the next song.  While the theme played, Honus Honus put on a white fur coat and then unfolded a skeleton which had been sitting in the back of the stage.   This led to another song from On Oni Pond, “Loot My Body.”  During this wonderful song, Honus Honus had the skeleton sit on his shoulder and then had us crowd surf the skeleton, which was a first for me.

After retrieving and carefully folding up the skeleton, Honus Honus had another costume change.  He put on a blazer that had the words “An Alligator Ate the Baby’s Neighbor like a Now and Later and We be like…Whatever” in large letters on the back.  I thought this might have been a weird response to that whole Melania **ump jacket thing.  But a search shows that he has had that blazer since at least 2015 (back when things were still nice).  He also strapped on the Shia LeBeouf mask to the back of his head and proceeded to sing to us.

So much was happening at all times, that it wasn’t always clear who to focus on.

During “Mister Jung Stuffed” Honus Honus “collapsed” on the stage.  King Cyrus King seemed very concerned and rushed to his aid only to quickly jump over to the coveted keyboard post to complete the song (and pound on the hapless keyboard).

A few words about King Cyrus King.  Cyrus Ghahremani has worked with Honus Honus for a few years (extensively on Honus’ solo album).  Ghahremani is a fantastic musician who has worked in all manner of genre and has created songs for almost every comedy and cartoon that adults might watch.  He “contributed original compositions to several programs on Adult Swim and Comedy Central (including Kroll Show, The Eric Andre Show, and Another Period).”

And as King Cyrus King, he was the perfect back up for Honus Honus.  In addition to playing everything, he also has a wonderful stage presence and can be just as zany as Honus.  A number of times he came up front to play the keys while Honus Honus was otherwise occupied.  I noticed after the show that the keyboard seemed to be quite bowed in the middle.

The rest of the set included a couple of new songs and a couple more songs from Life Fantastic.  At some point Honus Honus sang to us through a megaphone.  And a few times he seemed to just sit back and watch Jazz Diesel drum like a maniac.

I loved the crazy pattern on Jazz Diesel’s drums.  And for such a small kit he made a lot of noise.  He was also very nimble on the drum stool–several time he jumped back quickly and stepped away from the kit before sitting back down and bashing away again.

I enjoyed watching him all night.  It’s not often you get to see what the drummer is doing but it was great watching his do some impressive fills and snare paradiddlles.

The band left for an encore break and even though it was already past their scheduled time, I assumed they weren’t going to end without an encore.

It was a fairly brief pause before Thu came back out and played what the setlist people are calling “Electric Woodwind Improvisation.”  I am very curious about this instrument.  It looks like a clarinet but it is clearly a synthesizer.  It was plugged in but apparently activated by breath.  And while it mostly sounded like a clarinet, he was also able to do some really nifty electronic things to the sound as well.

It was during this solo that I noticed what I somehow failed to see for the whole night.  That Thu Butler had a beard on half of his face while the other side was clean-shaven.

After the improv, the rest of the band came back romp through the fun new song “Beached.” (which everybody knew all the words to already).

They closed the set with two more classic songs from Rabbit Habits. First was the outstanding “Top Drawer,” one of so many of their songs that juxtaposes almost circus-like verses with insanely catchy choruses.

The final song was the slow “Whalebones” which ends Rabbit Habits.  On the record it’s 7 minutes long.  Live it was that long if not longer.  The song has a refrain which repeats until the end: “Who are we to love at all?”  After about five minutes, Honus led us all in singing the refrain over and over.  And soon after, the band started taking their exit–albeit very slowly.

First to leave was Honus Honus–to much deserved applause.

King Cyrus King made sure we kept singing and then slowly left the stage.

They were followed by Thu Butler and then Mature Kevin as we kept the song going.  This left only the Jazz Diesel and guitarist Brett Morris to finish out the song.  After a few more measures of just guitar and drum, Jazz Diesel left and Morris was there to play the pretty melody while we all quietly sang the refrain.

Then the song was over, Morris thanked us and left he stage and that was that.

It was spectacular.  And yes, of course, I want to see them again.  It was great to have them back.

Before the show even started there was a guy who was a huge fan standing at the stage.  At one point, he handed Honus Honus a bandanna that had been around his arm.  I didn’t hear what was going on, but after a minute, Honus tied it to his keyboard (which is covered in all manner of stuff) and the guy was so happy.

When the show ended, Jazz Diesel gave the guy his setlist and the guy was so thrilled it was a very nice moment.

He was also nice enough to let everyone take a picture of it.

SETLIST

1. Tone Poem
2. Cloud 9
3. Zebra ϖ
4. Goat
5. Hurly/Burly ®
6. Happy Birthday Improvisation
7. Lonely Beuys
8. Future Peg
9. The Ballad of Butter Beans ®
10. Head On Ø
11. Piranhas Club £
12. Law & Order Theme
13. Loot My Body Ø
14. Mister Jung Stuffed ®
15. Bangkok Necktie £
16. Prettiest Song
17. Haute Tropique £
18. Life Fantastic £
19. Powder My Wig

    Encore:

20. Electric Woodwind Improvisation
21. Beached
22. Top Drawer ®
23. Whalebones ®

ϖ The Man in a Blue Turban with a Face (2004) [1 song]
® Rabbit Habits (2008) [5 songs]
£ Life Fantastic (2011) [4 songs]
Ø On Oni Pond (2013) [2 songs]