It Was Man Man vs. "The Man," Man
Saturday night's Man Man performance was going along just as we expected after seeing them just a few months ago. The Philadelphia band was tearing through songs in typical uninterrupted style, and the crowd was finally starting to really get into it. We saw a lone crowdsurfer, then we saw said surfer get tossed from the venue. Moments later, the band took a break to call for their friend's return. The ejection we saw wasn't the one of their interest, but their friend Tracy, who was "violently" thrown out. There wasn't much explanation other than what the band said, but we later heard that their friend was drinking from a bottle of booze smuggled into the crowd. In any case, the band tried to make a case for their friends return, pausing the show for around ten minutes with claims of never returning to Neumos, that it was all bullshit, etc.
The band was right about one thing. It was bullshit. Man Man, we're sorry your friend got kicked out. Sucks for them, and if it looked to be violent, we're sorry about that too. However, if your friend was drinking from a bottle of booze, they were pretty much asking for it. It's one thing to have a bottle in your bag that you refill your cup with in the bathroom, it's another entirely to publicly flaunt the rules. If the latter is what was going on they deserved to get kicked out, and the bullshit is that you stopped the show in defense of a very obvious wrong. We've always known the security at Neumos to be fair and understanding, but they have a job to do, and the fact that this show was all ages only adds to the pressure. So you stopped the show, slowed the momentum of the entire performance, and well, harshed our buzz, for some petty issue with your dumb friend. That's crap. But we understand, it was the heat of the moment and all that. We just hope you give your friend a good smack to the back of the head for being such a dumbass.
In any case, after all the OMGdrama, Man Man got the show going again. They gave it a good go, as did the crowd, but the show never fully recovered. People were happy and appreciative on the whole, but having seen the fever pitch Man Man can induce with their, banging, clapping, yelping, facepaint-clad madness, we left knowing that people didn't get the full Man Man experience. Maybe next time (whether that next time is at Neumos or not).
mp3: Van Helsing Boombox
mp3: I, Manface
Image from flickr user heartonastick
