Man Like Me at New Slang

It is quite difficult to write a review on a gig when many pints of alcohol were involved but I will sift through the hazy blur to try my best to remember the events of last Thursday night.

Man Like Me may be known to many from the Ikea advert as Johnny Langer walks through various kitchen designs as 'you will always find him in the kitchen at parties (at parties!)'. Man Like Me is a fun collage of many different genres with a bit of hip hop, a bit of indie and a bit of rave.
I saw Man Like Me perform at New Slang in Kingston Upon Thames last year and although I had never heard of them before that night, I became hooked. The night was full of mental energy and they performed so well that I worried that Thursday night would not live up to my expectations.

Fortunately I was so wrong.....

Man Like Me returned to New Slang in all their crazy glory with 'Yo True' as their support act and I had never seen such a crowd at New Slang since the switching of venue. Yo True as a support act was rather a let down as I felt their R&B vibe was too relaxed, something to jam to on a sunny afternoon rather then warm up a stage with.  Despite this I did like the set up of having two drummers, one on a normal set of drums and the other on a pair of bongos complete with wind chimes. They exploded with a with what I felt was a promising song halfway through their set, but after this it just seemed to fall flat again.

I acquired a spot just in front of the stage on the right hand for side for Man Like Me just as Johhny was wheeled on stage in a trolly, which I strongly suspect was nicked from the local Sainsbury's, covered in an orange sheet resembling a ghost from Essex. This set the madness for the next 40 minutes (at least I think it was 40 mins, there was no way of me telling being in a crowd of ravers). I instantly fell in love with the two men who were on saxophone and trumpet, dressed like they were members of The Specials but with all the cheekiness as though they were in Madness. Throughout their set they played a mixture of songs from both their debut self-titled album and the recently released 'Pillow Talk.' The biggest crowd pleaser seemed to be 'Squeeze' which got us all whipped up into an electric ecstasy. My favourite member of the band has to be Ade, a powerful African soul singer who has a voice so powerful he could easily conquer the world on his voice alone. At one point during the performance the cheeky Johnny came close to breaking his own neck. As he stage surfed he was pushed backwards where the ceiling suddenly lowered, putting his neck at very scary angle before being hauled safely back onto the stage.

All in all, it was a night full off immense energy both from the band and crowd alike. My own personal highlight has to be when they finished up with 'London Town' as their encore. Any fan of Man Like Me will know the dance moves that accompanies the song and the whole crowd went 'down, down, down.....'

Pillow Talk is out now. Purchase it from your local record store.