Friday, April 05, 2013

The Men, live @ An Club (Athens, March 31, 2013)


These Men are really working and playing hard. In the 13 months since the last time we've seen them live in Athens, The Men have released two albums that showcase a restless spirit and an ever evolving sound. The anarchic noise punk of 2011's "Leave Home" gave way to the more structured assault of "Open Your Heart", last year's release which showed them opening up their sound to include a wider range of influences, from krautrock to country rock. This year's "New Moon", the band's fourth LP in as many years, focuses more on their inner Neil Young without losing touch with their punk rock roots.


Sunday's highly charged set drew mainly from The Men's last two albums, featuring several of the band's more folk rocking tunes. In the live environment though, even the "ballads" raised the decibel levels to dangerous limits, while their all-out punk rocking tunes were even louder, faster and dirtier.


Based on what we've witnessed here, any fears that The Men might start growing their beards and do a reverse-Dylan by switching to acoustic guitars have been put to rest, at least for the time being. It's still anybody's guess, though, what will they be up to next. My guess would be something very loud and extremely noisy!


Check out below "I Saw Her Face", one of the highlights from The Men's performance at An Club:

The Men -  Saw Her Face (live @ An Club, Athens, March 31, 2013)

Support came from the 60's influenced garage rockers Social End Products and the back-to-basics noise rockers Rita Mosss who did their best to warm up our ears for The Men's onslaught.


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