When someone goes to see a band with a couple of huge radio hits, it’s always entertaining to see him or her make sense of the opening act. In this case, we are talking about Modest Mouse at the Congress Theater, and the opener is the ever-amusing Man Man.
When Man Man scrambled on stage, stepping over instruments, drumsticks, and various kitchen utensils, no introduction was given. Every member grabbed whatever instrument they could find, shut their eyes, leaned forward, and made as much noise as possible. Everyone was banging, pounding, strumming, and shrieking for a good minute or two.
The band members were all clad in white outfits, headbands, and war paint, and the instant there was a second of silence, a girl in an obnoxious Santa hat next to me shook her head incredulously, tapped my shoulder, and said, “Who are these guys???”
She wasn’t the only one to ask this. Three more people asked me throughout the set. Hundreds of people that night probably turned to the person next to them and asked the same question.
When the initial pot banging and shrieking quickly absorbed into an actual song, it was a new song and was damn good. Powerful operatic vocals, wild piano, and dueling horns came from the stage. The sound at the Congress Theater couldn’t have been worse, but the one lyric front man Honus Honus sang that was intelligible was, “You look bodacious in a guillotine.”
The band flew through each song without stopping, and non-Man Man fans were forced to take notice when they jumped into “Black Mission Goggles,” one of the best tracks off last year’s Six Demon Bag album (Ace Fu Records). That’s when things got out of control.
The song has a signature chant — think of a men’s chorus meeting Wizard of Oz munchkins — and another set of interesting lyrics: “No, you can’t have the sperm.” These words were sung while Honus stood on his chair with a silver bowl, poured water into it, and then threw it in the air.
The entire band then charged forward and abruptly stopped, with one member running off stage while the rest of the band stayed frozen. The lone member quickly returned, and the band jumped back into the song as though someone pressed play on their remote control.
The song then broke down to its perfect ending, where everyone grabbed a drumstick and tapped like mad while singing in unison, “I whisper, I whisper…” It ended with everyone trading the drumsticks for bells and an assortment of keys that they jangled into their microphones.
Honus later put on a black sequined shawl and glitter headband while screaming, “I’m going to get you!” The song “Engwish Bwudd” was a huge crowd pleaser, and fans sang along when the song stopped for the angry outburst, “Get the fuck out of my house!”
Man Man ended the set with the anxiety attack of a song “Young Einstein On the Beach,” screeching, “Got get it, get it got it” over and over until the song ended as abruptly as it started. They dropped their instruments and scrambled off stage, leaving the crowd speechless and begging for more.
Modest Mouse was up next. There were lanterns glowing across the stage when the band finally came out. Singer/guitarist Issac Brock showed the crowd an ashtray he had in his hand, while a short chick behind me interrupted, yelling, “Get off the stage, you asshole!”
Everyone ignored her and the band jumped into “Bury Me With It,” which has the token lyric that named their 2004 record Good News For People Who Like Bad News. It was played exactly like the studio version except for massive amounts of terrible feedback.
After a few lackluster songs, the band rushed into its latest monster hit “Dashboard,” and the crowd ate it up. “Fire It Up” and “King Rat” trailed on after.
Then Brock took off his sweater, revealing a shirt that read “The Perfect Guy,” and the band launched into some unfamiliar, dark sounds that soon turned into a moody upright bass line and worrisome drum beats.
It took a minute to realize they were playing “Tiny Cities Made Of Ashes” from 2000 album The Moon & Antarctica. The guitar and keyboards were dark, penetrating, and angry. With his eyes bulging, Brock screamed, “Does anybody know a way a body could get away?!?”
The song stretched past ten minutes, with Brock alternately shrieking and muttering new lyrics, something along the lines of “I work in entertainment.” He lost his guitar for a moment and crept to the edge of the stage, singing over and over, “Sometimes the population is you.”
He grabbed his guitar again, rested it on his shoulder, shoved his face into the strings, and started singing into the guitar, completely distorting his vocals while the band got louder and louder. Finally, this was a Modest Mouse worth watching.
It was a treat to hear “Here It Comes” off their 2001 EP Everywhere And His Nasty Parlour Tricks. Brock busted out a banjo and started shrieking for most of “Satin In A Coffin,” while bassist Eric Judy calmly smoked a pipe.
After two new poppy tunes and radio hit “Float On,” the entire crowd sung and danced to “Doin’ the Cockroach.” This is always one of Modest Mouse’s strongest live songs, employing an incredible spiraling guitar jam at the end.
They ended with “The View” and “Parting of the Sensory,” the powerful, irate ballad off their new record. Recent addition Tom Peloso, also a member of bluegrass band Hackensaw Boys, brought out his violin, but it was impossible to hear.
A better closer would have been “Spitting Venom,” the fiery eight-minute masterpiece off their new record, but the lights went on quickly and everyone shuffled out.
– Sharyn Goldyn
Man Man: www.wearemanman.com
Modest Mouse: www.modestmousemusic.com
Photo credit: Michael Persico