Man Man at 9:30 Club
Michael Persico
Were it not for Ryan Kattner’s distinctive Fu Manchu mustache, he could have been mistaken for any number of the anonymous, denim-jacketed stage hands tuning instruments before Man Man’s Friday night show at 9:30 Club. But there it was, alerting the packed room of shouting fans that Man Man’s singer-pianist-organist was in the building—albeit not yet in character. After tucking away backstage for 20 minutes, Kattner reemerged in a black wife-beater, white cut-offs, and war paint as Honus Honus; the crowd of similarly attired fans went wild.
Honus Honus—credited as “forethroat” on all of Man Man’s albums—and his goofily nicknamed band of pipe-bangers began their hour-long set with “Easy Eats Or Dirty Doctor Galapagos." Inter-song space was kept to a minimum, lasting just long enough for the members of the band to grab some water or steal a glance at the set list without any of the usual banter. Needier fans might have wanted a few rehearsed tour stories or confirmation that they were the best crowd in the whole entire world, but the gathering at 9:30 Club was perfectly content to just fling sweat and elbows at each other. The devotees on the floor gleefully shouted along with nearly every word that Honus Honus sang in his dragon-throated, Tom Waits howl. This was understandable during the gibberish of “Push The Eagle’s Stomach” (which included multiple chants of “moustache”) but odd during the slower, piano balladry of “Big Trouble” and “Rabbit Habits.”
Man Man earned its popularity through constant touring, both as a headliner and as an opening act for groups like Modest Mouse and Gogol Bordello. All that time spent on the road has certainly tightened the band’s live performance—but to almost too fine a point; the percussionist’s collection of metal cylinders (and rods with which to beat them), for example, implied a sense of spontaneity that was never met onstage. The live show mostly stuck to the same cues that appear on record, with most of the variation coming from similar sounding xylophone solos.
It’s hard to get too worked up about that tightness when Man Man’s most recent album, last year’s Rabbit Habits, was so much quieter than the noisy freak-outs of its past work. The live rendition of the album’s lead single, “Top Drawer,” hit every note that the studio sibling does, while 2006’s “Young Einstein On The Beach” stretched from its original 59 seconds to more three minutes, building to a crescendo of new chipmunk-toned “whoos” and “bah-ha-has."
Spontaneity hit the show best during the encore, when car keys, Fisher-Price megaphones, bowls of water, and soup spoons were used to create the onstage blow-out that built Man Man's reputation. Drummer Pow Pow laid down a breakbeat as Honus Honus did his best Gibby Haynes impression and walked across the stage in a wobbly strut. The show ended immediately after the first encore, but even after a mere 70 minutes, the audience was too worn out to clap in the hopes of bringing Man Man out again.
