Man Like Me
Xoyo, London
26/01/2011

Unless you count being in an Ikea advert, Man Like Me are not household names yet. But this triumphant beginning to their current UK tour would suggest it won’t be long before they become the real thing. It’s not just that Old Street’s newest venue XOYO is packed with more than 500 punters that tells you something special is going on here. It’s the way the audience, mainly female and the remainder mostly geezer-ish clones of singer Johnny Langer in flat caps and Fred Perry shirts, sing along to every song word. And the way thirty or so audience members feel moved to storm the stage to join Man Like Me for a jubilant encore, their ultra-catchy celebration of the pirate radio era, ‘London Town’.

But they do deserve it. Man Like Me’s show tonight is slick and accomplished, the product no doubt of endless touring over the past year. They pull off every carefully choreographed move effortlessly, taking on different characters as different songs progress and ensuring there’s always something to watch. They sound phenomenal too; the harmonies tighter than a ConDem budget, the pre-programmed beats mixing with the brass section’s swells and blasts all evoking the 2 tone attitude of Madness or The Specials, only reinvented for the age of the sampler. Like Madness, the lyrics are often very much in the storytelling tradition – tracks like ‘Single Dad’ and ‘Donut’ detailing everyday conundrums and frictions. At other times, like on the carnival knees up ‘The Sound Of The Man Like Me’, the vocals are just there to keep the party going, and either way, it’s great.

Weirdly, there’s no sign of their current single, their version of the Jona Lewie hit ‘You’ll Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties’. Perhaps it was planned but impossible to fit in as the band find themselves swamped by well-wishers during the encore. But when everything in your set sounds like a hit single, it doesn’t seem to matter too much. After several years stealthily building up their fanbase, tonight Man Like Me prove they’re more than ready for the big time.

Ben Willmott