Straight Up Hood Rich

Live Review: Man Man

3/5/10

The Trocadero Theatre

Philadelphia, PA

“Brace yourself. Your shit’s about to get rocked.”

These were my words of warning to the nice young lady who chose to stand next to me on the dance hall floor. The night’s second opener (Javelin, who we’ll get to in a bit) had just finished their quick set and now waiting for the night’s hotly anticipated headliner, Man Man, had begun.

“I mostly just listen to their music when I chill out,” she told me as she pulled a small tin of pot from her purse and began to load up her glass one-hitter. “Do they really get that wild?”

Story time commenced. I took her back two Halloweens (that of ’08 to be exact) when my wife, Sarah, and I had attended their last Philly show at the luxurious Starlight Ballroom (and by luxurious I mean Mexican bar/roller-rink converted to an indie music venue). I was dressed as an “Average Joe” from the movie Dodge Ball. My wife was Little Red Riding Hood. We had made the same assumption about Man Man that my newly acquired friend had.

Fuck, were we wrong.

Continue reading…

Decade Retrospective: Year 2006

I’ve always considered myself something of a Pittsburgh resident, even though I grew up in the suburbs near Philly. My folks are from Uniontown and I was raised to love the Pens and the Steelers as my friends made fun of me for refusing to root for the Eagles, led by black-Irishman Donovan McNabb. As a result, getting out here and going to CMU and moving to Lawrenceville post-college always felt like something of a homecoming.

Still, I have a real Philly bias when it comes to the town I grew up near, and that comes through in music. Philly always churns out some good music. Most of it just happens to be hip-hop. But, when I got wind of a group of folks with moustaches and beards who banged on pianos and percussion instruments while crooning lyrics about being broke as shit and heartbroken, I took notice. Particularly when I found out they were from Philly.

There were a lot of great records released in 2006, specifically Return to Cookie Mountain and Silent Shout, but for me the top album came from the big top inspired, impoverished influenced Man Man. Six Demon Bag is the fucking tits. Continue reading…