I watched Man Man’s leader Honus Honus closely before his bands performance this evening. A kinda short, heavy moustache-wearing man dressed in a little black denim prowled the venue during the support acts lead in to the main event. Honus had the caged heat look about him, and I was anticipating his bands showcase due to their reputation of being an absolute nutter unit of indie-gypsy misfits, a shrink’s worst nightmare who have been associated with fellow avant-garde musicians such as Tom Waits, Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa.

I was anticipating the raucous, psychotic episodes of musical improv, of organised chaos and of their original, cutting-edge sound that was impressively smeared all over their recent Rabbit Habits record. I’d soon discover that you can’t always get what you want, and that’s cool. Dressed in trademark white shorts or slacks and face paint, Man Man went to work on the East Brunswick Club punters asses with a pair of pliers and a blowtorch in a way that folks around these here parts haven’t seen in quite a while. Rhodes piano fed into the drums, various other percussion, pumping bass, guitars, more percussion, madness, mayhem, indie-genius and absolute shite to create a thrilling mess of noise.

Honus Honus is a deadringer for Reg Reagan from the NRL Footy Show – the physical resemblance is scary. Like a beast possessed, there’s something quite definite about the Philadelphia quintets show this evening, like always, they’re on a mission. The setlist of tunes are taken from their eclectic past and explosive present material, The Man In A Blue Turban With A Face, Six Demon Bag and Rabbit Habits.

The lads remind me of five seriously deranged twits on day release from a psychiatric institution. There is something very One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest about the whole production and as much as the majority of their style or individual song structures are boringly similar on the one hand, the progressions are uniquely breakthrough on the other. In conclusion, Man Man as a retarted collective have this hypnotic, infectious appeal that drags you into their fucked up world irrespective of whether you want to be drawn in or not.

CHECK OUT THE MADNESS HERE