Pissed Jeans/Celebration/Man Man @ Webster Hall, NYC 10/2/07 (And Man Man's "Little Boxes")
We're making a grand tradition out of seeing stacked shows to celebrate Stereogum Presents... releases. For OKX, we swung over to Hiro to see Zach Galifianakis take someone else's bid on an ostrich painting that really belonged on the Stereogum office wall and Band Of Horses play a fun set. For Drive XV, it was a shorter commute (to Webster) for a much crazier evening, that involved much more shirtlessness than that for which we bargained. Started with an entertaining set of eardrum-bludgeoning punk stuff. Matt Korvette kicked it off by stripping his shirt, pushing it down the back of his jeans, down through his leg and out the ankle hole, raising it triumphantly, poised for applause. Before a note hit. From there, the band's echoing, bone-rattling blasts came with Korvette's boob-ish posturing: flicking nipples, contorting, bending over so we could get a good look at his freshly self-smacked ass, providing Hope For Men everywhere. Great shit, see them. By no means should this band be an opener; what could follow that and make an impression? The answer: two of our favorite bands, in sweet succession.
But before that, more paunches to gawk. Comedian Jonah Ray was the inter-set entertainment, though his bits were hijacked by Man Man superfan and show fixture Darren Mabee, just a dude with a beard, a belly, and a serious love for Hulk Hogan.
They sang Hulkster tunes and battled, via both joke-slams and body-slams...
Aside from that nonsense, back to the bands. Celebration treated Webster to a front-to-back retelling of their forthcoming pearl The Modern Tribe in all its swirling, organ-laced groove glory. Katrina Ford was rocking a limp, but having her leg bent and sat on a chair while she stood at her mic proved an effective stage stance; the gimp leg made for great tambourine crashing material. The Baltimore trio were joined by a sax guy from Antibalas, a guitarist/keyboardist guy, and Ryan Sawyer, filling out the Tribe tunes powerfully. Set was front-loaded like the record, but still awesome.
And finally, Man Man. Obviously we love them, you know, but somehow this was the best show we've seen from 'em yet, blown away like we were the first time. Probably 'cause it was a 16+ show, and the kids are ape-shit in love with the men men. Heard all the Six Demon Bag faves, heard the new stuff like "Zombie," but the road duty with Modest Mouse has done 'em well; band is tight. Also, Honus Honus has a new black slip he throws over his insane-asylum whites for a bit (and a nice sequined headband -- sassy!).
Ran into Honus Honus before the set: "Did you catch Weeds Monday night?" he asked. (Of course, how else to keep up with Majestic's continuing encroachment upon Agrestic? Man Man tunes dominated the playlist, from their opening cover of "Little Boxes" to the inclusion of "10 lb. Moustache," "Engrish Bwudd," and "Feathers.")
"Yeah, that was tough, calling my parents and telling 'em to watch, and having 'em see Andy Botwin foot-fucking all those porn stars." But the band can't hold it against Justin Kirk; sure he defiled women with his toes in the show and made Mom Mom uncomfortable, but as Honus told us, he's the Man Man fan over at Weeds and made all that happen. Andy's got taste.
Their cover of "Little Boxes" is well worth checking, if only to hear Honus play his vocals straight and affectation free for once. (Would be cool to hear some Man Man material done that way ... hint...) Have a listen at Deaf Indie Elephants, and scroll down for tons of pics.
PISSED JEANS
CELEBRATION
MAN MAN
Posted at 3:34 PM in Concert
Tags: Celebration | Man Man | Pissed Jeans
Wow, I didn't realize people outside of Philly pretended to like Man Man. Listen people: because they're doing something different doesn't mean they can't also suck.
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Great pics. That looks like a lot of fun. I haven't heard Pissen jeans (yet) that's cool about Weeds Weeds
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HAHAHAH I KNOW MABEE hahahhahahaha omg this is awesome. I'm basically a star.
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I was skimming the front page, and for a moment I thought "Wow, Tim Harrington really let himself go"
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Can we please stop giving media coverage to that pathetic disgusting loser?!!?! He is a male groupie for a lousy band for crying out loud!!!
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