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Adams: Cooler than North Adams?

… Yes. Here’s the scoop, readers.

Angela and Jackie and I found ourselves locked out of a favorite Pittsfield dive bar Friday night. It was 12:45; what to do? So I rang up a coworker from my day job, The Berkshire Eagle, and friend of Buntology Mike Foster. Mike is a very down guy.

We found ourselves at the Grille, a little bar on Summer Street in Adams. The beers were cheap and the boys were cool – why didn’t we know about this place before?

Party on Pearl Street [by Ivan]

NORTHAMPTON – Man Man, a rock band from Philly, came to Western Mass. last night, and of course it was a groovin’ time.

Ange, Alicia, Jacqueline, Tim “T-Ratt” Rattelle, Matt Minski, his lady, Jess, and his friend Zach and myself all made the trip over to the Pearl Street Ballroom in Noho (That’s Northampton, Mass., for you out-of-staters – Alicia). After listening to “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” over and over, Man Man finally came to the stage … in their trademark fashions of white clothes and face paint.

Which reminds me, these kids offered me and Alicia white face paint, which we put on. Critter Crat (I think) came out with a red mask on. Me and Alicia and Ange got an awesome spot all the way up in front of the stage.


The band kicked things off with some songs from Rabbit Habits. They played Easy Eats, which Alicia wanted to hear wicked bad (Uh yeah, it had been my away message on AIM for like a week). They played a long set, mixing it up from songs from all 3 of their albums.


Later on, Pow Pow jumped up playing the drums and the noisemakers with Honus Honus, and I immediately knew… it was Black Mission Goggles!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I then freaked out. (That’s Ivan’s jam.) They played sooo many good songs. At the end they finished off playing Young Einstein on the Beach, Engrish Bwudd, and Poor Jackie (I was off with my SISTER Jackie when the song came on, and I lovingly crooned every verse to her. She really seemed to enjoy it!). I was also pumped to hear Gold Teeth, which was pretty siqqq!!! They did not play one of my faves though, Push the Eagle’s Stomach, but whatevs.


Anyways Honus Honus, while playing Engrish Bwudd, decided to use Ange’s head as a percussion instrument, which was sweet! Haha no … but he did touch her head


I kinda wish I hadn’t been so fucked up on Jim Beam, because I know they played shit from The Man In A Blue Turban With A Face, but I can’t remember which songs exactly they played. There was so much wilin’ out and raging for such an amazing show. It was one of the greatest shows, if not The Greatest, that I’ve ever been to.


When you’re listening to Man Man, you just go wild. If you get a chance to see Man Man, definitely do it. If they do come around near you, let me know so I can also go. If they play near you and you don’t go, then also let me know so I can throw a baseball bat at you.

Man Man…Oh man…

On Saturday night the girls and I went to a Man Man concert. Man Man? Huh? What the heck is that? I bet that is what a lot of you are thinking. (They are the sickest band ever. – Angela) I was thinking the same thing only two weeks ago. I only agreed to go because the girls peer pressured me, and a bunch of the Westy crew was going. After I bought the ticket I listened to a few of their songs. I really got to learn what they were all about on a long car ride home the other week. Ivan was driving and Angela sat shotgun and for over an hour and a half I was immersed in the sounds of Man Man along with the screaming/singing and dancing coming from the front seats. I wanted to kill myself. I kinda enjoyed it. The band was definitely talented and learning the songs got me pretty excited for the concert.

THE CONCERT:

We headed to Pearl Street in Northampton at around 9:00 pm. There was a good amount of people there. I don’t know if like there was a dress code that I didn’t know about but almost everyone was wearing stripes and hoodies. (It’s called the cool hipster casual look.) Stripes or not, everyone seemed really nice and pumped up for the show. When the concert started everyone made their way up through the crowds and mashed themselves into the front moshing area. I however knew right away this was not where I wanted to be. I would rather be on the sidelines takin it allll in. (I was raging in the front with Alicia and Ivan.) (And at one point i had white war paint on, like the band members, but in the hot sweaty clusterfuck it rubbed off. Probably for the best. – Alicia) Plus who else would get vids and pics for buntology? Buntology always comes first in my book!

An hour into the show Alicia’s drunken self came stumbling out of the mosh. She was a sight to

be seen! Drenched in sweat, covered in bruises, barely standing… Wow I was so glad I wasn’t stuck in that clusterfuck of a moshpit. I didn’t get to see much more of the concert after that because my job then consisted of holding Alicia up, finding and feeding her water, and dressing her wounds. (Hahahaha.) (Listen, it was fine, I was fine. I got a little beaten up, but like for me, that was very hardcore. Ange and Ivan said it wasn’t even a real mosh!)

After she got herself together…well somewhat together, we hung around the merchandise area. We made a new friend. Mark. Mark the tall boy from Amish land Virgina. I think? He was a nice guy, we plugged Buntology for a little while with him. (You scarred him for life.) (We did NOT scar him for life; as Jackie was hauling me outside, he called for me by NAME. Like, “Alicia, where are you going?” I think he may have been enticed by my fresh good looks. See picture at right.) The concert ended and Angela came running outside screaming about meeting the main singer or something. (Uhh, he touched my cheek during a song and he hugged me and thanked me for singing along!) (So jealous. Honus Honus stroked Angela’s cheek! The only thing of mine that got stroked was my head, with Jackie’s palm. And by stroked I mean smacked.) I was like texting and ready to leave at that point so who knows.

Looking back on the concert now I give the “Man Man” a thumbs up and maybe a 3.7 out of 5. (Dude, why did we have Jackie write this review? She doesn’t even like the band!) ( Judge for yourself, readers: For your enjoyment … MAN MAN!! (Honus Honus is the dark-haired gentleman bobbin his head in the front. He’s the one who caressed Ange.) I don’t know what that scale represents really but I just wanna throw some numbers out at ya. If you are looking to rage it out and dance around like a sweaty mongrel go see Man Man! (Well, I guess that’s true.)

Wilco, in a Nutshell

The crowd at Wilco made me feel like I was on a mushroom trip.

That’s probably the most factual thing I can say about the afternoon Alicia and I had at Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass., where we went to see Wilco and Andrew Bird perform on Aug. 12.