By: Andrea Myers
Like the last one at the party to get the joke, I burst out laughing Saturday night as Mark Mallman took the stage at the Turf and didn't stop grinning until the end of his set.
Up until this show, which I will now officially and reverently refer to as my Mallman Conversion, I can't say that I liked the guy. At all. In fact, the first time I took in a Mallman exposition I found him downright offensive and uninteresting. But all that changed in a matter of hours, when a shift in perspective led me to view Mallman as an otherwise soft-spoken and kind-hearted man who just so happens to transform under stage light into an aweless, unruly and ultimately ironic idol.
In the interest of full disclosure, I am almost positive that my Conversion began shortly before Mallman took the stage, as I submerged myself in the old Clown Lounge only to find Mallman himself lounging around in the basement. In my first face-to-face, off the stage interaction with Mallman, I was taken aback by his warm, gentlemanly presence and delicate candor.
When he sauntered out onto the stage to begin his set, dressed in a Sgt. Pepper's military jacket and motorcycle boots, it really started to add up. Rock stars, I realized, are just everyday, average people who incidentally become something amazing when they make music, and Mallman did an almost involuntary about-face as soon as he hit the first chord on his battered old keyboard. The way he bopped around the stage, ground his hips into the air and onto innocent mike stands, and performed fellatio on his microphone took on new meaning this night, the holy night of Conversion. Never before has a man straddling a keyboard looked so innocent, a rock star leaning down to make out with a girl in the crowd looked so jovial in my eyes.
Mallman played with a current configuration of musicians that included Jeremy Ylvisaker on guitar, Bill Shaw on bass, and Sean Hoffman on drums; and watching the band interact with Mallman in pretended spats was yet another enjoyable element of the show. After hocking several drumsticks and miscellaneous random objects at Hoffman and not getting him to catch them as he was furiously banging on his kit, Mallman jokingly fired the drummer. When Ylvisaker started playing a Prince rift on his guitar between songs, which sounded a lot like the intro to “When Doves Cry,” Mallman became outraged and yelled “Fuck that midget, this is my town now.”
But despite all the antics, Mallman couldn't manage to distract the crowd from the fact that he is a talented keyboard player and a fine songwriter. In “Hardcore Romantics,” Mallman crooned, “My love is like a resurrection, hardcore – I just want to be romantic,” and aside from the initial silliness of the lyrics, it seemed like this guy really knows about love. “I try to romance her but I don't get an answer,” he sang, a line that could just as easily slide into a heartsick folk ballad as his own powerful, 80s-revivalist style of rock.
Another dichotomous moment occurred as Mallman and the band pounded through a straightforward rendition of Phil Collins' “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now).” What began as a chuckle that rippled through the audience ended in the whole room swaying together, as if the whole room realized at the same time that it might be ok, just for this moment, to rock out to Collins and sing along to, “Ooh take a look at me now, well there’s just an empty space/And you coming back to me is against all odds and that’s what I’ve got to face.”
A sign that read “Against All Odds” was taped to the front of Mallman's keyboard, and was another part of the show that assured me that Mallman is a hard working, even self-conscious musician and performer at times, who finds a way to become an arrogant yet lovable prick when he takes the stage.
The Conversion was complete.
Set List (with some possible variations):
True Love
Midnight Man
Against All Odds (Phil Collins cover)
Speak of the Animal
Hardcore Romantics
Traveling High / Turn the Page
Life Between Heartbeats
Becoming a President
Better People / Hellofaman
Still Wasted
Play Piano
Goodnight Goodbye
Shortbread
Encore:
Swingtown (Steve Miller cover) / Kissing the Knife
Waking the Neighborhood
Photos by David de Young.
Location Info:
The Turf Club
Artist Info: Mark Mallman
Share this story:
Article comments powered by Disqus