According to a friend who scours the New York music scene, Bowery Ballroom is the best venue in the city. It includes a downstairs bar area, (more Bowery than ballroom) with a large pine bar, dark lighting and red dirty pillow cushions, and it acts as a holding/drinking tank before releasing hipster upon hippie into the upstairs performance area.

The opening band was still moving their equipment out of the ballroom upon our arrival, so we snaked through the crowd to try and score standing room next to the stage.  As Man Man set up, I noticed a large number of fans dressed up like the band, draped in white and sporting war-paint with matching headbands (imagine The cast of The Road Warrior playing Wimbledon).  Clearly an  energized crowd had come to pay tribute to the band’s wild mix of music and performance art.

Man Man’s sold out show consisted of their usual ecstatically maniac set which they play straight through while thrashing around stage, trading instruments and throwing rubber snakes at each other.  The performance included most of the songs from their new album “White Rabbit Habits”, in addition to some of the band’s best hits from their previous two albums, 2004’s “The Man in a Blue Turban With a Face” and 2006’s “Six Demon Bag”. As Man Man is widely praised for their studio work but worshipped for their concerts, it was great to hear new cuts like “Mr. Jung Stuffed” and “El Azteca” in the live arena, and the sold-out crowd was happy to dance, shout, and sing-along as the band worked them into a frenzied level of bliss . 

Lead singer, keys player and songwriter, Honus Honus, twirled a glowing jump rope around his head and performed his customary crazy on-stage acrobatics while Pow Pow stepped up his vaudeville performance, pretending to fall asleep, then "waking up" up to slam his sticks on the drums.  Russell Higbee, also known as Critt Cratt (formerly Cougar), the band’s musical genius, switched off between drums, keys, trombone, and the trumpet. and in the background Chang Wang (Billy Dufala) and Sergei Sogay (Christopher Shar) gave a stellear supporting performance with an array of odd instruments that crowded the stage and filled the ballroom with an off-the-wall wall of sound.  In addition to the new material, "Banana Ghost,” off of Six Demon Bag was the evening's highlight as it's cacophony chorus rang similar to the sounds of the circus in the early 20th century.