TVD Contributor Ariane Trahan is the founder of Easy Apple, an artist development company that bridges the gap for musicians between New Orleans (the Easy) and New York City (the Apple).
On the eighth stop of their first national tour, Oakland’s Man/Miracle do it up big in New Orleans. Playing with local darlings, Vox And The Hound, staying out until 4am with yours truly, and really appreciating the unabashed nightlife the city finds pleasure in offering her guests. During their one-night-stand, Tyler, Dylan, and Emery were amazed by the public consumption laws, intrigued by the mold-infested broken-down chandelier in Saturn Bar, and gratified by the famous jambalaya at Coop’s Place. And yes, they were forced to wait in line outside during tropical storm Lee, just like the rest of us!
I discovered Man/Miracle after my former colleague, Dawson (who now works for NoisePop) emailed me about how killer their set was at the NoisePop festival. I had a few email exchanges with the band about working with them, but eventually got blown off. I never take these things personal, and here’s why:
Ariane: Are you guys a staple at the venue Popscene in San Francisco?
Travis: Ok, so our first year playing Noise Pop, Aaron Axelson came up to us after djing our show. He was like, “I think you guys are fantastic! I wanna play your song on LIVE 105.” I had no idea what Live 105 was. He bought a CD, kept hitting us up, and I don’t remember ever responding. And then everyone was like, “Dude, you just passed up this huge opportunity!”
Ariane: So you never responded, and that was the end of that?
Travis: I mean, we met him a couple other times and he was like, “Yeah yeah, whatever.”
Ariane: Are you kidding me? It took me a year to get through to Aaron! I even made a trip out to San Francisco and made it a point to visit Popscene just to hang out with him.
Corelitz: It was the opposite for us. He ended up mentioning Man/Miracle on his show Soundcheck, but he never played our song. Maybe that’s why we also never played Popscene! That’s kind of our thing, I guess.
The pre-show conversation lead to comparing the Bay Area, NYC, and New Orleans music scenes.
Travis: You can’t copy the “New York” sound. I bet it’s really great to come from a place like New Orleans and be able to create something so organic, something that truly belongs here, but that goes over well in other cities. We hope we’re doing the same for the Oakland area.
Man/Miracle opened their set with “Pushing and Shoving” from their debut The Shape of Things. They kept it loud and unapologetic for a few songs before premiering “Valleys.” This was around the time the guy next to me equated their live vibe to that of The Cure. I nodded my head in agreement but remember thinking there was something very Gavin Rossdale about Dylan Travis’ delivery of the lines, “Under night, the shade of you sleeps on the ground. Pale and tired, unforgiving.”
The set was comprised of three movements, opening with lively west coast surfer rock, moving through low-key melodic perfection, and ending in crafty art rock, where the crowd stood slowly bobbing as if they were at Cake Shop in NYC. It’s such a turn on to see a show where the audience stays completely enthralled til the end. Yum!
Their forthcoming EP Valleys will be released on September 23. In the meantime, you can hear The Shape of Things here.
Travis: So….Mimi’s?
Corelitz: Yes! Mimi’s!!
Yes, dolls, we had a two-hour nightcap at Mimi’s as DJ Soul Sister spun her rare grooves until the wee hours of the morning. Classic New Orleans evening: PBR, table dancing, and slurred words throughout the night. Normally I would hate myself for sinning to such extremes, but for the sake of leaving our city’s visitors jonesing for a return trip, I took one for the team. And curtain.
Man/Miracle Twitter Update: “Really, really glad we made it to New Orleans. Best town ever. Vox & the Hound are a pretty amazing band.”
