ANN ARBOR - Don’t tell the U.S. Air Force, but aliens docked their spaceship on human soil Sunday night.
The vaporized human molecules that make up science-rock outfit Man or Astro-man? infused the audience at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor with their extensive intergalactic repertoire of surfy-space sounds.
Eastern Michigan University student Logan Walters was a human counterpart awed by the space aliens’ galactic intrigue.
“They’re all aliens, and that’s reflected in their music,” he said. “They are so different than everything else out there.”
Over the course of eight albums and a staggering number of compilation and EP tracks, Man or Astro-man? is still coming up with unique sounds, composed primarily of twangy surf-rock heavily dosed with sound bites from cheesy sci-fi flicks.
The band - Birdstuff on drums, CoCo The Electronic Monkey Wizard on bass, Trace Reading on guitar and Blazar on guitar - played with a lot of energy, especially Birdstuff. His facial expressions made it hard to know whether to laugh or be terrified.
“I set my hand on fire at one point so that was a new discovery,” Birdstuff said after the show. “Now I have to perfect playing with my hands on fire.”
The band members set up their instruments in sequential white jumpsuits and appeared in matching black outfits with name tags and black-rimmed goggles for the set. Their setup included the backdrop of a screen showing images from outerspace and a variety of blacklighting and strobe lighting.
“I talked to some people earlier today who planned on coming because they are so theatric,” said Zach Evans, a University of Michigan student.
CoCo said the tour is going well - except for the van breaking down on Saturday night in Cleveland.
“You know, you travel around this planet and things are going to break down,” he said after the show. “The van is a technical device and they fail.”
Because of the van breakdown, the band didn’t make it to the venue until after doors opened at 9 p.m.
“We were frantic because we didn’t get to do proper preparation for the show, but it went superb anyway,” CoCo said. “Hopefully we pleased a number of human lifeforms who actually paid to see us play.”
One highlight of the show was CoCo playing a standard keyboard like a guitar, complete with a shoulder strap. And Blazar attempted to set his alien counterparts on fire.
University of Michigan student Dave Baker said the band was exactly how he imagined it would be live.
“Their songs are completely precise and all their chords are strategically placed,” he said. “CoCo is completely insane, just as I expected.”
CoCo explained the band’s name.
“Since we’re from space, we weren’t familiar with Earth’s popular culture, so we had to examine it so we could correspond and blend in with humans,” he said. “We acquired our name from a movie, an old ’60s Japanese film called ‘The Human Course.’ One of the trailers for the movie said ‘Born of woman, but recreated by outerspace. It loves like a man, but is it man or astroman?’”
