The Living Rockumentary

Tony, that guy that yelled at you was right. You would have loved them. I almost called you to tell you to come back, but I thought it was too late. Mark Mallman's show was the most entertaining thing that I have seen at Harry's up to this point. Think Hedwig and the Angry Inch meets Tom Green, led by a guy who looked like Dr. Who but worked the stage like Andy Kaufman. For the first 15 minutes I was struggling to hate them, for the rest of the show I was completely won over. They had really well-written Bowie-esque songs, they played them very well, and Mark Mallman absorbed the spotlights like a sponge. Only since Lord Russ has such a show been put on in the area. Really smart and funny. I don't know what the recordings would be like, I almost bought a CD, but some part of me was still trying to remain cynical. It was pretty bewildering.

Mallman acted like an arena performer, throwing his arms in the air, putting one foot up on his almost-falling-over keyboard, but all the while his slightly pudgy belly was stretching out of his too-tight camoflage T-shirt. He sang the songs with complete passion, but could instantly slip into a little narrative to the crowd. After one way-over-the-top dramatic song, he turned to the guitarist and said, "Did you hear me singing about swimming away from the sharks? That was about a plane crash." At another time he was explaining how in his days before becoming famous, Billy Joel used to create a fake delay/echo effect by repeating a word and moving the microphone away from his mouth, then Mallman looked up into the lights, flung his arms into the air like Roger Daltry, and yelled, "And remember you saw me here do it, too, and I'm gonna knock Joel off the charts!".

I'm really sorry you guys missed this show. How could you have known? I didn't know. Even if the antics didn't float your boat, it was nice to hear the arrangements and the smooth, funny but serious lyrics. There is no way that anybody could play after Mark Mallman, he made every other musician just seem ridiculous.

Personal note for Tony, at one point, during the song Everybody Dies, he yelled out, "Are you there God? It's me Mallman!"