Dan Mangan at the Mercury Lounge

Canadian indie rocker Dan Mangan was in New York on Tuesday night for the early show at the Mercury Lounge and despite the time constraints (he could only play an hour show because another band would be coming on for the late show), it was an excellent concert, highlighted by the closing performance of "Robots" in the middle of the crowd, right next to me in fact, which was pretty damn incredible.  Mangan as an artist caught my attention with the release of full-length debut Nice, Nice, Very Nice in 2009, an album that I kind of liked at the time -- particularly the singles "Robots" and "Road Regrets" -- but in the time that followed, I became even more impressed, as it has lasted on my playlists long after most albums released at the time faded from my memory.  He's now touring in support of his 2nd album, the equally impressive Oh, Fortune, and his appearance at the small-ish Mercury Lounge might be his last NYC appearance at a venue so small, so I'm glad I got a chance to catch him.  He said he'd played there a few times before but this was by far the largest crowd (the place was packed) and it was a very enthusiastic crowd indeed, with at least a dozen native Canadians in attendance around me cheering hard for their countryman.  Mangan played mostly songs from the new album -- 6 of the first 7 tracks were off of Oh, Fortune, and they sounded quite good.  I've had the album for a while -- in a physical copy, yes I still buy CDs -- so I knew all the new songs and I was glad to hear them.  But I will admit that the performance of "Road Regrets" was probably my favorite of the show, at least until the close.  Mangan shared the stage with another guitarist, a drummer, a bass guitarist who had a stand-up bass as well as an electric, and a guy playing the trumpet.  He brought up a female saxophonist who he met at a northwest Canadian festival (I forget which city he said) where it's light out for 3 days and things get crazy.  They threw her into "Some People", which she never heard before, but she did great and they really rocked out all kinds of crazy on that song, which was really cool because that was by far my least favorite track of his from his first album and yet it sounded great live.  At the close of the show, though, Mangan decided to do what apparently he does frequently at the end of his shows (or maybe just for great crowds like us lol) and he climbed down from the stage with his guitar and the rest of the band and moved to the center of the floor (where I happened to be standing) to play his final song.  One of the Canadian guys next to me got him a chair to stand upon, but it was a swivel chair, so he kept rotating him throughout the setup, which was really cool and funny, and then Dan said something like "We're going to do 'Robots' so sing along as much as you want, if you want to do it at the start that's fine."  And that's what we did.  An entire audience of -- I don't know -- 150 people standing in a circle around the band singing every word to the song in unison.  And Dan was standing/rotating literally above me, playing his guitar and singing along.  It was amazing.  Great job, Dan and the rest of the band.  Robots need love too.

Setlist:

1. About As Helpful as You Can Be Without Being Any Help at All
2. Sold
3. Oh, Fortune
4. Leaves, Trees, Forest
5. Post-War Blues -- this was freaking awesome live
6. If I Am Dead
7. Starts with Them, Ends with Us
8. Road Regrets
9. Some People
10. Rows of Houses
11. Regarding Death and Dying
12. Robots

• Download Dan Mangan - "Robots".mp3

I don't know what you've been told
But I don't get out much these days
Waking young and feeling old
The days are no longer my own
To piss away the waking hours

But don't, don't, don't
Don't let them go
Don't, don't, don't, don't
Don't let them go to waste
The fire in my eye
Is fleeting now
Your robot heart is bleeding

Tried to be the robot king
And settled for a robot boy
Ring the bells that still can ring
And sing your stupid head off to
The ones who are not listening

But don't, don't, don't
Don't let them go
Don't, don't, don't, don't
Don't let them go to waste
The fire in my eye
Is fleeting now
Your robot heart is bleeding out

And I've spent half of my life
In the customer service line
Flaws in the design
A sign of the times

And that little voice
In the back of your mind
Just wants you to know
Just hopes you know

Robots need love too
They want to be loved by you
They want to be loved by you
They want to be loved by

Robots need love too
They want to be loved by you
They want to be loved by you
They want to be loved by

Robots need love too
They want to be loved by you
They want to be loved by you
They want to be loved by

Robots need love too
They want to be loved by you
They want to be loved by you
They want to be loved by you

Comments

[Wholesale Electronics China]

bianca: Talk about completely missing the point.