Man Man @ Troubadour, 10/23/07

I first got into Philadelphia's Man Man when reading about them on Pitchforkmedia early in the year.

I bought the album Six Demon Bag and it was awesome. Then I saw them open for Modest Mouse at the Gibson Amphitheatre at Universal City Walk after the show was moved from the Greek Theatre due to raging wildfires in the mountains and LA Fire Dept. setting up station there. Let's just say I felt bad for Isaac Brock and Co. ...I left to the Man Man merch booth during a Modest Mouse song to buy their first album, The Man in a Blue Turban With a Face. Equally engaging as the first with more of a children's sing-along vibe.

Man Man is one of the top 5 live bands I have ever seen in my life, and I've gone to Coachella the last four years in a row, along with hundreds of other great shows in Los Angeles. This show was fucking incredible and incredibly fucking packed was the Troubadour.

The place was super fucking hot due to all the damn Southern California wildfires and smoke. Dammit, every time Man Man comes to town, there's a huge array of wildfires. Coincidence? Or maybe they rock so hard that they set the world around them on fire. Last band that did that didn't make it out alive.

Rarely does a band have the kind of energy and chemistry on stage as these manly men do! They sound like a bunch of drunken singing fishermen who broke into a New Orlean's lounge bar and beat the shit out of the jazz band. They sound like a band of twee influenced gypsies wearing pots and pans on their heads while singing Tom Waits' covers and falling down the stairs.

The five or six dudes in Man Man jump up and down with their all white clothing: tank tops and T's, cutoff shorts, sailor shoes and those white Keds that your grandma still wears, and they rock the fucking house down. They pound the shit out their drums, use random items to beat with the drumsticks such as pans and empty oxygen tanks, and most of all, they just look like they are having a great time on stage. Every one of them seems to have at least one drumstick in their hands at any given moment. Keyboards, horns, guitar, bass, xylophones, drums, flute, melodica, drums, etc. I'm surprised they don't have a banjo and an accordion. Maybe on the next album, guys? Please?

Everybody sang along. You could barely find a path to the bathroom and if you did it'd take you five minutes just to get through.

Too bad I didn't show up early enough to take really good pictures. Enjoy.