LIVE REVIEW: Man Man / Steel Tigers of Death @ Neumos

I understand the fact that it’s hard going to a concert on a weeknight if you have to work the next morning. I know some people just cannot function on 6 or less hours of sleep. However, once in a while a show comes to town that is worth every second of those miserable, suicidal moments in the morning. Last Wednesday at Neumos one of those shows went down.

Starting the night off were the Steel Tigers of Death, a local punk rock band that has gotten some attention here lately at SRG and will continue to do so because they are just that fucking good. If you haven’t heard of them (like most of the people at Neumos that night), they wear costumes, and typically after a few songs strip down and proceed to play the rest of their set in nothing but booty shorts and wrapped in strands of lights. This was the third time I’ve seen them live. The first time they wore sheep costumes, the second time they wore penguin nun outfits, this time 3 of the members wore outlandishly shiny outfits, while Steel Tiger frontman El Tigre wore black and sported a red cape. Words won't really do these guys justice, so check them out for yourself in the video below. After you do that, I’m sure you’ll want one question answered immediately and I’ll go ahead and answer that for you right now…..their next show will be Oct. 30th at the Funhouse with Dead Vampires.

Next up was Let’s Wrestle, a straight up indie rock band all the way from England. I have to admit my knowledge consisted of nothing more than listening to a couple songs on their MySpace page prior to the show. After seeing them live I can honestly say I’m a fan and will be on the lookout for more material from these guys hopefully in the near future.

Capping the night off was the almighty Man Man. If I had to describe these guys to someone that had never heard of them before I’d have to go with drunken pirate rock. Yeah, pretty crazy stuff, and needless to say I had no idea what to expect going into this show.

Man Man configured their keyboards, drums, and guitars on stage before their set-- nothing out of the ordinary. Then out came the jar of spoons, keyboards with hoses, a xylophone, saxophone, feathers, a bag of baby carrots and a small container to which vocalist Honus Honus dumped mysterious black powder.….I think you see where I’m going with this. When they were all finished the band exited the stage to change, leaving behind without a doubt one the most unusual grouping of instruments I have ever seen.

After 10 minutes the band came back to the stage in their typical all white attire and war paint and unleashed one of the most off the wall, experimental performances I’ve seen to date. At the 40 minute mark, the band got up like they were done for the night.

They weren’t….

Honus Honus let the crowd know by putting up one of those “be back at…” cardboard clocks you might see in the window of a store whose clerk stepped out for lunch. Now I don’t like to be one to say that a band or its music is drug influenced, but if I had to point the finger at one current band it would probably be Man Man. By doing the little “be back in 10” routine all I could think about was they were probably going downstairs to “re-fuel” if you will for the last 15 minutes of their set. Who knows though, and who really gives a shit, because when they came back, they continued right where they left off. El Tigre said it best, “if you don’t like Man Man, then you don’t like music”.

Steel Tigers of Death: