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Man Man Setlist
Tour Dates
10/17/15 Philadelphia, PA Theatre Of Living Arts
10/18/15 Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn Bowl Read More
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Philadelphia alt-experimental band Man Man is like a good cheesesteak sandwich—
Mostly meat, a good amount of cheese, some peppers for spiciness, and something holding it all together- the band came to town recently, playing before a rowdy Turf Club audience in St. Paul.
Opening the evening was Brooklyn resident Shilpa Ray and band, who previously toured with her own blues rock band, the Happy Hookers. After a 2013 EP, the band returned this year with full-length, Last Year’s Savage (Northern Spy Records) and dazzled with a 40 min. performance that channeled Natalie Merchant or Norah Jones with a dash of Patti Smith, fronting Alabama Shakes.
The hum of her Indian harmonium over howling big blues vocals impressed on songs like ‘Johnny Thunder Fantasy Space Camp’ which mocked hedonistic rock stars and sexually based songs like ‘Nocturnal Emissions’. The great thing about her music is the layers that uncover as the listening progresses- first, the dark, bluesy exterior that then reveals a more substantive and thought provoking inner layer – Ray is one to add to your musical discovery list.
Man Man’s intro music set the tone for their 80 min set – Positive K’s 1992 radio hit, ‘I Got a Man’ chopped and mixed to be re-titled ‘I Got a Man Man’. Singer/keyboardist Honus Honus (who somewhat resembles a thicker Dave Grohl) and group took to the stage amidst chanting for set opener, ‘Easy Eats or Dirty Doctor Galapagos’, full of percussion and magnetic eccentricity.
The band hasn’t had a studio album since 2013’s On Oni Pond (ANTI- Records) but new music may be on the horizon soon, as evidenced by a few new songs sprinkled into their set. Honus pounded the keys, stomped about, “healed” audience members, and I think briefly even played drums on someone’s forehead, all in the name of an odd and memorable performance.
Wardrobe changes were a part as well, with Honus donning a white fur (or faux fur) coat, followed by a suit jacket that had a weird story about an alligator sewn on the back, then down to a simple black tank top at encore. Their sound is reminiscent of early Mothers of Invention (Zappa’s old band), their arrangements and chord changes seeming random, but all making (somewhat) sense in the end.
Drummer Pow Pow got into the action, playing a four-high cymbal rack and assorted percussion, and even taking a turn at vocals near the show end, while multi-instrumentalists Shono Murphy and Brown Sugar impressed with their musical dexterity, picking up a French horn for one song, then playing a malletKAT for the next.
Later-era songs like ‘Head On (Hold On to your Heart)’ seemed to sound more mainstream, but also connected more overall with the mostly college-age crowd. The five-song encore was all over the map as well- Honus alternating between falsetto and standard voice, a gentle mandolin performance of ‘Deep Cover’, the stomp of ‘Top Drawer’ and ‘Doo Right’ exploding over a taped guitar portion of Eric Clapton’s ‘Tears in Heaven’.
Impossible to shoehorn or clearly define, the Man Man live experience simply has to be undertaken in person and like a cheesesteak sandwich, taken in and enjoyed for the magical sum of its parts.
Mostly meat, a good amount of cheese, some peppers for spiciness, and something holding it all together- the band came to town recently, playing before a rowdy Turf Club audience in St. Paul.
Shilpa Ray
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Shilpa Ray (closeup) |
Honus Honus
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The band hasn’t had a studio album since 2013’s On Oni Pond (ANTI- Records) but new music may be on the horizon soon, as evidenced by a few new songs sprinkled into their set. Honus pounded the keys, stomped about, “healed” audience members, and I think briefly even played drums on someone’s forehead, all in the name of an odd and memorable performance.
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suit jacket |
Drummer Pow Pow got into the action, playing a four-high cymbal rack and assorted percussion, and even taking a turn at vocals near the show end, while multi-instrumentalists Shono Murphy and Brown Sugar impressed with their musical dexterity, picking up a French horn for one song, then playing a malletKAT for the next.
Later-era songs like ‘Head On (Hold On to your Heart)’ seemed to sound more mainstream, but also connected more overall with the mostly college-age crowd. The five-song encore was all over the map as well- Honus alternating between falsetto and standard voice, a gentle mandolin performance of ‘Deep Cover’, the stomp of ‘Top Drawer’ and ‘Doo Right’ exploding over a taped guitar portion of Eric Clapton’s ‘Tears in Heaven’.
Impossible to shoehorn or clearly define, the Man Man live experience simply has to be undertaken in person and like a cheesesteak sandwich, taken in and enjoyed for the magical sum of its parts.
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Man Man at Triple Rock Social Club, Minneapolis (22 September 2015) |
