Photo Cred: Karyn Danforth
“There’s nothing like putting on an old woman’s bingo shirt,” remarked Ryan Kattner as he casually smoked a cigarette outside after an intense performance.
Ryan Kattner, aka Honus Honus, is the frontman of the Philadelphia based band, Man Man. The band, which has been compared to Frank Zappa and Tom Waits, is a theatrical marvel comprised of anything imaginable: face paint, costumes, plastic instruments, buckets, cans, even the simplistic jingle of keys on a keychain.
Man Man performed recently at the Heirloom Arts Theatre in Danbury, Connecticut with opening acts Tim Fite and Bottle Up and Go, and with the theatrical theme resounding in every performance; there was no room for anything that required perfection. While the openers impressed the audience with big hair, tight pants and ridiculously funny power point presentations, the final movement was yet to come.
After Bobby McFerrin’s early nineties hit “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” played what seemed-to-be ten times in a row during set-up, the musical circus had come to town.
Adorning matching cut-off jean shorts with white t-shirts and painted streaks on their faces, the quintet jumped right into many of their newer songs off of Rabbit Habits, which was released earlier this year.
Here’s the interesting factor in Man Man’s performance- they do not even once stop to talk to the audience. No cheesy “Hey Danbury, we’re here to rock!” exclamations. They stick to what is important: keeping the energy in the room alive and thriving from “Top Drawer” to “Big Trouble.”
When exclaimed how his costume changes were similar to a pop diva’s “two songs and a new outfit” rule, Kattner laughed, “But my costumes are ratty.” Hence the old women’s bingo shirts, that, and throw in some feathers and sparkly sequined sashes.
The audience was bedazzled by Honus Honus’ stage presence: one moment, he’d be jumping off a chair, the next, pouring water into a bowl and splashing it everywhere, or singing into a toy voice changer.
Man Man didn’t have to say anything to the audience to interact. As if the performance wasn’t enough, they’d pat drumsticks on people’s heads, throw out random objects, or stare at certain individuals dead straight in the eye.
Like every band, Man Man left and made the audience chant and pound their feet like savages until they returned for more debauchery, and what an encore it was, especially with their frightful ‘fairy tale’ “Engrish Bwudd,” with lyrical moments like “all I want to be is a bubbly gobbly gook” and “fee fi fo fum, I smell of the blood of an Englishman.”
Sitting on the side of the stage after the show, Kattner shook fans with every fan that had gathered to express their complete awe of what they’d witnessed. After a quick change of clothes, Honus Honus (a pseudonym, if one wasn’t aware) walked outside with me to fill me in on the hectic life of a band with a low budget.
“We make enough to live on,” he said. “We can only afford to take a month or two off [to tour], but then it’s back to work.”
Pulling out his Iphone, a fan jokingly mocks him for owning the expensive, hip device.
“Yeah, I have an Iphone but I don’t have a place to live,” Kattner replied.
While the art of translating energy onto audiences was discussed, Kattner was quite the jokester. After describing his hometown of South Philly as a place of “sweatpant boners,” he spoke of how he wants “to go,” so to speak.
“I want to be creamated and put into a pinata that looks like me,” he said, rather seriously.
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