Gil Mantera Party Dream rocks hometown
YOUNGSTOWN – Just after 11 p.m., my ear is on the receiving end of all the highs being projected out from the stage at Cedars Lounge, coming from goLab’s drum machine.
The Toledo-based band just started playing their indie-dance music, complete with half-masks and a theremin (obscure early electronic instrument.) The crowd is already pushing the stage and an endless line of people pay cover at the door.
It’s the first show in basically a year-and-a-half for locals-gone-big Gil Mantera's Party Dream, coming off their second straight tour.
It’s not the Nyabinghi, but the faces are here. It’s home.
No matter where I find myself in the bar, I keep over-hearing conversations comparing other shows by Gil Mantera's Party Dream. These fans, they’ve been here for a while. Even if it meant waiting months for a local show.
Onstage, Ultimate Donny talks about how long it's been since they've played a local show and describes it as “kinda sad.”
“If you want to call us out on that fact, that’s fine,” he tells the crowd, which was shoulder-to-shoulder by the time they took the stage.
There were lots of fans that looked too young to have never been to the Nyabinghi (where they most frequently played) to have seen Audio Eagle's Gil Mantera's Party Dream before. The crowd danced in pockets, while other portions seemed tame in comparison to some previous local shows.
Still, the place was packed with eager watchers — for those transfixed by Ultimate Donny’s leopard-print Speedo, or listeners — for those seeing the band perform with drummer A.E. (Tony) Paterra for the first time.
I could go through and critique the songs they played, old and new, but Gil Mantera's Party Dream shows have always been more about the experience than watching for chords memorizing lyrics.
And Friday night, the crowd at Cedars loved it. Any mention of the city brought huge cheers from the audience, as Ultimate Donny sang, “Youngstown. This is my hometown,” after their first song.
There was lots of skin (mostly onstage, some in the crowd), there was lots of dancing (shared between stage and crowd) and the unique dance/synth-pop music that doesn’t sound like anything else than Gil Mantera Party Dream.
There was a shared effort in the only successful attempt at crowd-surfing I’ve seen in Youngstown as Ultimate Donny climbed out onto out-stretched hands. There was crowd-surfing at Cedars.
Gil Mantera's Party Dream came home. And they rocked it.
Comments
they arent with audio eagle anymore
Comment not rated
The set from the show sounds awesome!!! and if you missed out and wasnt able to make it out... tune into www.rukusradio.net Thursday Night at 7pm for ruKus on the Road with Trevor Quillan and Moestradamus as they broadcast the full show recording!!!
Blasting Forth with a complete disregard for the Mainstream!!!
Comment not rated
Michael - According to the Gil Mantera MySpace and the Audio Eagle website, they are.
http://www.audioeaglerecords.com/?cat=2
??
Then again, it has been 6 months since they updated the site.
Are they on Fat Possum now, or someone else?
Comment not rated
this was a great show and the band before them was pretty radical. i bought their cd for 2 dollars and can safely say it was worth the investment.
Comment not rated
when i interviewed them they said they weren't with fat possum or audio eagle anymore. they said they're releasing their new album independently.
SCOOP.
Comment not rated
some people might remember the guy playing drums for GMPD from the band zombi, who played an amazing show at the nyabinghi a few months before. and the opening band was indeed good, but 'radical' mackey? go 'hang ten.'
for anyone who enjoyed GMPD, go catch Grand Buffet with dj supreme Girl Talk and recent cedars performer Weird Paul, plus like four more bands at mr smalls on May 9. its only $15 - i spent that to see Girl Talk by himself, along with some crap with hipsters in spandex playing double dutch. itll be a pittsburgh band smorgasbord (sp?).
if you dont know who Girl Talk is, find out now.
Comment not rated
and i meant to say that zombi played the binghi a few months before IT CLOSED. not recently. as much as i wish that could be true.
http://www.girl-talk.net/
Comment not rated
i used "radical" as benignly ironic praise. it's what all the cool kids are doing.
Comment not rated
hi. i'll clear up the label thing. we're not affiliated with any labels currently but are negotiating. there's no bad blood. everyone at both audio eagle and fat possum is lovely and nice to work with.
thanks to everyone for making our local show incredibly fun. it was great to get the youngstown love. it meant a lot to us. cedars was very accommodating and helped everything run ultra smoothly.
the girl talk show is sold out.
gil mantera lives with jackson of grand buffet.
weird paul really is weird... and a good guy.
zombi rules.
"radical" will always be a sweet word. it's used on grand buffet's sparkle classic.
Comment not rated
Post a comment
(Requires free registration.)