Just Another Manic Monday: Manic @ the Echo, August 13, 2007

Lazy summer days make me lazy about going to hot, hot concert venues. However, the Monday night residency at the Echo this month is Manic, a band I just reviewed over on Little Radio and who I needed a comparison of their live music to what they sounded like on cd. And it was free, but that's beside the point.

The funny thing about residency nights is that the bands' "style" of music does not necessarily have to match each other. I have no idea how they go about doing this but in my head it involves a bunch of club owners drawing names out of a hat in a dark back room somewhere with one bare light bulb hanging overheard. For example, tonight upon arrival the bouncer was telling us that they had a huge crowd tonight compared to the 50 odd people who showed up last time and I believe they were mostly there to see this all girl Japanese ska band. Oreskaband is made up of what looks like a group of 14 year old girls in school uniforms. The strange thing being is that they were cute in like, a muppet way and actually were entertaining to watch while we fetched drinks from the bar. A LARGE amount of people were packed in front of the stage jumping up and down to the music, which made the Echo incredibly hot and gross so we decided to high-tail-it outside to the back, where it was still kinda too warm out, but it is August so I shouldn't complain.

When we happened to look at out watches again it was almost 11 and Manic had just started to play. Which is odd for the Echo... going on time. I believe we walked in on the start of "Carolina Ghost", a haunting, pulsing rock song that I think might be my favorite off the new EP. One thing that struck me about seeing Manic live is that much more emotion seems to be thrown into the songs than on the record. Maybe it's the sweating and dancing and screaming into the mic. Or the girls yelling "sexy" as they play. Or the fog machine that we thought had killed the drummer... maybe not that. But anyways, they played songs off the new EP and I'm guessing their last one as well- I'm not completely sure. It as kinda a short set, but they only have 2 EPs out so I guess that makes sense. In a press release on them it said that the only things in life they want to be doing aOne ridiculous event of the night was while I was taking photos an older woman turned to me and asked if I was Paul's (the singer) mom. Seeing as how I might actually be younger than Paul, I don't think this is biologically possible. It made me hate my new haircut for a second if it makes people think I'm possibly 30 years older than I actually am. Oh, and what was up with the craft fair outside in the back? I think that's a first as well.