Man Man w/ Javelin at the Trocadero March 5th, 2010

Man Man @ The Trocadero

By, Nick Rizzuto

Look out for Man Man’s 2010 album, but in the mean time, enjoy 2008’s Rabbit Habits.

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Just from going to school at Drexel for a couple of months, I already have some great memories in this city. A lot of these involve The Trocadero on 10^th and Arch.  I’ve seen favorites like The Dirty Projectors, been to random shows of bands I never listened to like Between the Buried and Me, and even saw comedians Michael Showalter & Michael Ian Black in February. Well, this past Friday, I saw another show there that will definitely have a lasting impression me.

The band was Man Man – a band, nay a tribe, of Philly natives who studied music at University of the Arts and whom I vowed I would see the next time they played a local show. I am not a gigantic fan of the band and only own their newest album, but the overwhelming consensus on their live show is that it is unbeatable. Man Man has a reputation around the city as being the band to see and have also gotten national attention by being featured in a Nike commercial starring Rainn Wilson in 2007. They’ve also had songs featured in the TV show Weeds and their 2008 album charted at #186 at its peak despite the name of the band being generally poorly known.

Javelin with their strange backing video

Before they took the stage, however, The Skin Cells, from Havertown, PA, and powerhouse duo Javelin, who have been getting a lot of blog buzz recently, took the stage. Javelin is apparently two cousins from Rhode Island who are doing something that I feel is completely original. Despite having only 2 members, the band puts on an incredibly rounded psychedelic live show complete with awesome synth lines, eerie vocal effects, and drumming unlike I’ve ever seen before. I feel like what Javelin is doing, even if you just take their percussion into account, is almost revolutionary. The two members are cousins but the drummer does something that may seem small but is completely mind-blowing for a drummer – he stands up! Armed with a set consisting of foot pedals, one tom, one snare, one cymbal, and an electronic drum box – Javelin’s drummer was sweating his ass off after only the band’s first song. He uses his entire body at all times and essentially by dancing with his feet and using the other percussion components creates amazing drum beats that just couldn’t be achieved by a normal lame sitting drummer.

After Javelin’s set, which was coupled with a trippy slideshow on a huge screen in the background, Man Man took the stage. Just like the legendary YouTube videos I had seen of the band, most of the band came out in all white with war paint, feathers, etc – much like the way my friends and I were dressed actually. The two who wore black beaters were lead singer Honus Honus and drummer Pow Pow – the two main focuses of the show in my mind. I didn’t manage to get my hands a setlist, but I do know that the band played around 20 songs, including a double encore, and of which about 6 were unreleased. There was little to no speech between songs and so the audience had essentially no brakes from the insanity that Honus and crew spilled from the stage.

Honus taking his place at the piano

Kind of describes how I felt after the show haha

Honus Honus in all his sequenced glory!

Honus Honus, who had complimented my friends and I on our war paint before the show, came out first with a glare of madness in his eyes that he maintained throughout the entirety of the concert. He was followed by the rest of the band – Pow Pow on drums, two keys and mallet players, and a guitarist and bassist who both doubled on other instruments throughout the show.  Honus pounded on his keyboard and the band ripped into the beginning of their crazed series of songs. At one point, Honus came out with a megaphone and a trenchcoat like he had just escaped from a mental institution while at another point he changed into a sequenced green shirt to express his feminine side. Meanwhile, the crowd danced and moshed like they were at some sort of psychotic religious service and there is no doubt in my mind that a majority of the crowd were under the influence of at least one variety of pharmaceuticals.

Overall, it was an experience full of stage diving, sing-a-long choruses, and excellent musicianship that I could talk about forever. However, what I think is more interesting is the question that caused me to stop dancing at one point in the show and space out: “Why is this experience so appealing?”

I had been told many times that the war paint, feathers, and outfits Man Man are notorious for are shout-outs to both the Lost Boys from the Peter Pan stories and to the novel Lord of the Flies. Both of these novels share the theme of the innate identity of human nature and, in many ways, the experience that is Man Man also has this theme. People flock to Man Man shows because they can release their inhibitions and revert to this natural way of human existence. Yes, it offers an opportunity where hallucinogens, etc., are acceptable –but it is more about the collective experience of madness. No one in attendance actually is crazy or psychotic, I don’t think, its just that there is some sort of exhilaration that comes with suspending all normal thought or convention and escaping into the music.

I can only begin to answer the question of Man Man’s appeal or to analyze the band’s affect on their fans – but, regardless, a Man Man show is an eye-opening experience at the least. You will dance, you will sweat, and you will leave with bruises – but, in my opinion, it is entirely worth it.

Listen to Javelin’s song “Vibrationz” here.