we're, uh, we're actually required to wear fifteen pieces of flair...

I wasn't going to write this review tonight; it was my third show in as many days. Before I headed out tonight I was already wanting to be in my nice warm bed. That, however, was before Man Man totally kicked my ass. Here's how my Man Man experience has progressed: The first I heard of them was when I saw their album Six Demon Bag on a 2006 "best of" list. I thought "Man Man - Six Demon Bag" sounded like a metal band, but at the time I was going through a phase where I was trying to be open to metal (still not a fan) so I checked the album out. Ummm, definitely not metal. Experimental/noise/deranged rock is more like it. I dug the album, though, and when I found out they were coming to the Larimer Lounge I thought I might check them out. Honestly, my biggest motivation was in wanting to know how the hell they could possibly reproduce their songs live on stage. So I scanned blogs for Man Man show reviews, and the general consensus was that they put on a hell of a live show, so I bought my ticket.

And that's how I ended up at the Larimer Lounge shakin' it with the Man Man fans in the front row. Now first off, it's entertaining just to watch them set up the stage. There was only just barely enough room on the small stage for all the instruments + 5 band members. I have never seen so many pieces of flair on a band's gear than tonight: a rubber jackalope perched atop a cymbal stand, christmas lights, eyeball lights, scarves, feathers, a duck with a bow tie (he turned out to be an instrument, actually), a plastic finger screwed into a keyboard to hold some bells, some fuzzy gold fabric draped on the kick drum, well - you get the idea. And damn, more instruments than you can shake a drumstick at. The drummer was positioned at the front of the stage, facing the (main) keyboard guy. The other 3 guys and their plethora of music-makers were toward the back. They even had fucking toolboxes full of gadgets onstage, for god's sake.

Once the stage was set up they asked for five minutes - I'd read that they play "in costume" and correctly assumed this is what was going on. They took the stage minutes later in white t-shirts & pants/cut-offs, headbands, and white zinc oxide war paint. They set in with the first song and barely stopped for the next hour. Even the encore had maybe a 30-second break.

Holy fucking hell. These guys are like Architecture In Helsinki on speed, with about half the personnel and twice the instruments. With the exception of the main drummer guy, it seemed that everyone was required to play at least one keyboard instrument - keyboards, glockenspiel, xylophone; one string instrument - you know, the boring old guitar and bass; one wind instrument - trumpet, saxophone, slide whistle, new year's horn, some kind of wood box of which I do not know the name, and something that I think may have been a euphonium (thank you wiki); and one percussion instrument - drums, cymbals, bells, bowl & spoons, a pot, and one of those old-fashioned metal milk jugs (to name a few). A bike horn and a mini megaphone were also put to use.

I have no setlist - I was having way too much fun to try to keep track. They did play a bunch of stuff from Six Demon Bag, this I know. It was an amazing set, and as luck would have it they're coming back through Colorado and playing at Boulder's Club 156 on April 9. I bought my ticket as soon as I got home... :) If you have a chance to see these guys, especially in a small club, don't pass it up. And my advice is to get as close to the stage as possible: seeing facial expressions and the flair and the sheer mass of instruments is incredible.