Courting dads at college isn't easy. You've got to do all the planning, and you've got to keep him awake. All the while you've got to show off what you've been doing with your life away from home. (What have I been doing with my life here?)

This weekend my dad drove across Nebraska for the Husker football game that was sold out and we didn't have tickets for. You can understand that we were undoubtedly in a pickle. To set things straight, and have something to do, instead of joining some eighty thousand fans clad in red, black, and white at a game between two sides of the same team, we bought tickets to the baseball game on Friday. But God threw us a curveball and froze us out two innings in.

Luckily, though, while eating lunch Friday I had come across an article in the Daily Nebraskan telling about the perfect Saturday night outing: a Yeasayer and Man Man concert at the Slowdown in Omaha. I have been there three times this year, and it has proven to be a hotspot for the skinny, white, hooded types with a good ear for music. But how about somewhat stubborn fifty-year-olds? Apparently, all walks of life can enjoy the place if rowdy and raucous bands with a penchant for infectious, dark melodies are playing.

Yeasayer (yay-say-er) took the stage after we all had been primed with wide-panning views of the Moon, Earth, and Jupiter projected onto the screen set up behind the drum set. I wasn't sure what to expect from the group, although I had heard they played one of the best shows at South By Southwest. It turns out they're not too bad. But they weren't great.

Each song individually would have blown me away, but as a whole it was tiring. My dad and I were both in agreement that the drummer kicked some serious behind, but after a half an hour, I found that he employed essentially the same style for each tune. Now, a day later, and a heck of a lot less tuckered out, I can't stop myself from tapping my foot. The jury is still out for me, but how about you hear for yourself a couple samplers, and let the deluge of comments commence? More on Man Man after the jump.


Yeasayer--Sunrise
Yeasayer--2080

I've always been in love with bands who connect with the crowd, but before last night I hadn't seen one who could connect right off the bat, get the audience jumping, and not say a word in between songs. It was remarkable that Man Man could pull it off.

They kept the blood pumping with segues seamlessly plopped in what would have been silence, and battered our eardrums with organized noise for nearly two hours. I couldn't get enough. The lead singer, Honus Honus aka Ryan, bore a resemblance to Thelonious Monk in the way he rose his hands over his main live instrument, a Rhodes piano, and brought them down violently on the keys almost without reason. What came out though, were the only notes that could have worked.

When I say main instrument, I mean one of a bucketload of instruments. He even used the stage's walls! And the rest of the group followed suit, pulling out guitars, bells, tin cans, animal callers, and things I can't even begin to describe. It was wild.

I don't care who you are. Everyone wants to head bang their troubles away every once in awhile. Man Man gives you that opportunity. Crank up these cuts from their third LP, Rabbit Habits.


Man Man--Hurly-Burly
Man Man--Big Trouble