Man Man w/ Yeasayer & Dragons of Zynth @ Lee’s Palace, Toronto, April 12, 2008

If I have nothing else to say, it is this: Man Man puts on one mother of a live show. Don’t miss it if you get the chance.

Dragons of Zynth kicked the night off. For some reason, I just wasn’t feeling it. Drummer Bizza was hellaciously solid, but Akwetey’s guitar had way too much reverb throughout the entire set.

None of the songs really grabbed me, although singer Aku’s got a definite stage presence that really grabs your attention, especially when he jumps into the audience to get right in your face.

When Yeasayer took the stage they definitely kicked the overall level of musicianship up a notch, but that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Their fretless bass player is wicked good, and the whole band was very tight and technically proficient, but the songs just didn’t resonate with me. Perhaps it was the singer’s twitchy, new wave mannerisms on the mic, or maybe it was his overuse of falsetto, but I found myself halfway through the set begging for the headliners to take the stage.

Man Man have often credited being broke as a major influence on their approach to making music. Well, they’re still not successful enough to have a road crew, so they set up and tore down their own gear in a very laidback manner, so laidback I’d dare say some in the audience thought they were road crew. Sergei Sogay gave me a special treat when he sound checked his bass rig by playing “Right Brigade” by Bad Brains.

When the lights went down and they hit the stage ready to play, Man Man was manic energy made flesh, dressed all in white and wearing war paint. With Honus Honus and drummer Pow Pow up front, the 3 background players went through a full arsenal of instruments, from common place (guitar, bass) to the exotic (sax, marimba) to the quite unexpected (euphonium).

Honus is an absolute mad man on stage, and I had the time of my life just trying to get him in focus as he bounced all over the place. I ended up wearing a bit more of his sweat than I would have liked to, but as the pictures show, he had plenty to spare (check out the snail trail he left behind when he slid down the wall). He seemed to delight in sneaking over his Rhodes to bounce strange objects off of Pow Pow’s tom-toms.

If nothing else, Man Man do everything in their power to cram as much show as possible into their allotted time onstage. There’s always something new going on, and before you know it they’re gone. Their set was fast, tight and chaotic, full of zaniness and high energy, and even after their encore they were never in danger of overstaying their welcome.