AGL Live Session: Mandancing
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Sometimes it’s hard to be comfortable with yourself. Sometimes it’s hard to kick bad habits. Sometimes it’s hard to get past the past. Sometimes it’s hard to address the parts of your psyche that make you feel the most vulnerable, and for the band, ManDancing, these places are best addressed through song.
On “(beer) cases,” singer and rhythm guitarist, Stephen Kelly, writes about a time in his life when he was aware that his lifestyle wasn’t healthy, but decided to be okay with it. “The scene that comes to mind whenever I think of this song is me sitting on the front porch of my foreclosed childhood home, on a summer night, drinking beer, and thinking of past love,” Kelly mentions, “I think it’s about longing for what used to be, knowing that things aren’t the same anymore, and drowning your sorrows and fears instead of facing them.”
Kelly’s gentle yet purposeful acoustic guitar picking begins the song, entering quietly, but he is soon joined by bassist Adrian Kabigting, guitarist Ben Petty, and drummer Tom DeVinko. The arc of song crescendos in a way that reflects the way wistful thinking might when you’re alone with the kind of thoughts that are hard on your spirit. At the apex of this crest we are left suspended in the emotional power of the music, and then slowly brought back to Kelly’s poignant vocal and the reticent line that also begins the song, “I’ve been looking over my shoulder.”
“(beer) cases,” comes from the beautiful record, Everyone Else, which was self-released by the band in 2016 and re-issued this year by Take This To Heart Records. The potency of it’s reissue hasn’t gone unnoticed, and these New Jersey natives are happy to recount the album’s narrative that details the curves of self-discovery.
Go listen to ManDancing live. You will never see the same show twice. What you will see is the band’s entirely fresh interpretation of their music, played from the heart every time.
You can download the whole session along with all our previous sessions for Pay What You Want HERE!
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Video Credits:
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Audio Engineer – Ryan Hillsinger
Mixing and Mastering – Doug Gallo
Video Editing – Savan Sekhon
Videographers –Savan Sekhon, Anthony “Big Body” Comi, and Doug Gallo
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