[…Continued from last post]

MEN WITHOUT HATS

Okay, so let’s get this out of the way. I’ve liked Men Without Hats ever since their debut EP got picked up by Stiff in The States in 1980. I have their first three albums and any singles that I manage to find and enjoy them. Something told me that I was going to really enjoy seeing them since it was actually something that I never entertained for about 35 of the 44 years of my fandom. The band were Canadian. They had been intermittently active in the last 20 years and I was not paying close attention. What was the likelihood that I would ever see a show? And moreover, their minimal synthpop, while appealing, was not exactly what I would call bursting with vitality on disc. I expected a sense of quiet satisfaction at finally seeing this band. What I got was much more than satisfaction and I was certainly not quiet about it!

After a brief between set intermission, Men Without Hats were quickly on the stage and singer Ivan Doroschuk was still as thin as ever. Resplendent in leather jacket and pants in this insanely hot weather, his straight grey hair in a pony tail. I hoped we wouldn’t see him succumb to heatstroke in mid-set! Then the band shocked as they played “The Safety Dance” right up front in their set! Boldly violating Section 7, Paragraph 244 – subclause C of the Geneva Convention Of Rock Concerts Agreement of 1984 which clearly stated that your biggest hit must close your set, most certainly not open it! But the bold move paid off. The crowd was up on their feet and fully into it from point zero as the band roared out of their starting blocks at full power.

The lineup was Ivan on vocals with Sho Murray on guitar, Saraha Sloan on synths and backing vocals, and Adrian White on drums. Ivan was making Mick Jagger look like a senior citizen as he belted out those famous baritone vocals; as powerful, no…more powerful than ever! The band were giving it 110% from the get go. Maybe it was the juxtaposition against the disappointment of The Tubes prior, but this was making their fine records positively wilt in comparison. This was Synthpop played with the brio of Hard Rock by a band fully charged with a joie de vivre and transmitting it to an outdoor shed packed with like-minded people at full strength. Where would they go from here?

They next stopped to sample “Moonbeam,” a great single from their “Pop Goes The World” album that gave Ms. Sloan a fine spotlight for her soprano vocals. She was actually singing what was a sampled, manipulated vocal in the song’s intro! Talk about making things real! All of the brash energy latent in the Pop song was amplified by the vigor of their performance with Sho Murray’s powerful rhythm guitar adding propulsive energy and a delightful grit to the song. And Ivan was dancing along with his music the entire time; occasionally striking ironic rock poses and frugging along while still managing to belt the songs out.

Next Ivan dedicated this next song to his deceased bandmate Allan McCarthy [original MWH drummer who died of AIDS] who co-wrote the next song he was about to sing. Then they pulled out all of the stops and kicked the energy of the show into high gear with the whirling dervish energy of the single “Where Do The Boys Go?” as I proceeded to lose any cool I had left. Ivan got the crowd singing the backing vocals along with him and it was a singularity of rushing rondo energy as the meta contextual lyrics brought a huge smile to Ivan’s face as he recited the spoken word hook to the song as we all responded.

I might have been blowing out my voice but I didn’t care. This show was completely rocking my world. I was actually thrilled by it all and was singing and screaming along at the top of my voice. And then they delivered the coup de grace: the one song I wanted to hear more than anything today – the hyper-chilled Cold Wave of “Antarctica” transported through time all the way from that debut EP and 1980 to the sweltering heat of Raleigh this afternoon where it was sorely needed. Surely this could only go down from this point, right?

Wrong! Ivan introduced the band, revealing that the lady onstage was actually his niece, who he used to carry around in a backpack. Then they played the song I was second most desperate to hear this day; the perfect bilingual Synthpop perfection of “I Got The Message” where Ivan’s and Sahara’s voices wove into a lovely tapestry of multi-part [and multi lingual] harmony with the song repeated in French half way through. Following Ivan’s admonition to “take care of your mother,” what else could they play but the joyful [yet apocalyptic] “Pop Goes The World?”

We were six songs in and I had been delivered everything that I had been hoping to hear and more. How could they exit on a climactic note? How…? By playing the extended club mix of “The Safety Dance!” That’s how. And they can get away with that conceit as the 7″ version of the song they opened with was a svelte 2:45 long. For those of you who weren’t around at the time, it was actually common for some radio stations to play the 12″ mix of the number three in America tune; such was the demand for the song. The 4:32 club mix could freshen up the track on the air without making listeners hang around six or more minutes. The extended buildup sported a new melody and gave the song a fresh perspective, so they totally could get away with that conceit.

Their set had been a revelation to me. I had expected to like it, not have it utterly ambush me with its unexpected power and impact. It was bursting with such high energy and joy that I was effortlessly swept up in the MWH vibe of hopeful, zestful melodies and lyrics that were concerned with the big picture if you cared to parse them. Ironically, I’ve never owned “The Safety Dance” on a single, so I was looking at the cover really for the first time in detail this afternoon and saw that profile on the right and…Holy Spit!! They put Ronnie Reagan clearly on the cover of the single. I learn something new every day! And on that note…

Men Without Hats Set:

1. The Safety Dance
2. Moonbeam
3. Where Do The Boys Go?
4. Antarctica
5. I Got The Message
6. Pop Goes The World
7. The Safety Dance [Extended Club Mix]

Next: …Stop The World…I Want Get Cool [Before I Melt]