By Jase Walker
The one time a trip to Eindhoven, normally a fairly simple direct trip, is completely arsed up thanks to railworks just so happens to land on one of the shows I’ve been most excited for this year. Man With A Mission, a Japanese outfit of wolves and notorious for being a big name on anime theme music, have returned to Europe once again. With prominent series names such as ‘Demon Slayer’, ‘Haikyuu’ and ‘My Hero Academia’ under their belt, and a fantastic catalogue of music in its own right, it’s little wonder they’ve built such a strong following around the world.
Along for the ride are slightly unusual compliments, Hands Like Houses, who also happen to be a firm favourite of mine so I absolutely will not complain about that. As we’re waiting for the bands to start I’ve had a bit of a scan around and it’s a shame there isn’t more cosplay here compared to the last time I saw MWAM in Manchester, but at least there’s an over-representation of anime shirts so that’s good at least! I’ve swiped myself a T-shirt with an awesome mecha wolf on the front of it – because why not eh?
Opting to use Earth Wind and Fire’s big banger, ‘September’ as their lead up track, Hands Like Houses are ready to start the show and get their riff on. Let the musical whiplash begin, starting with a bit of Aussie metalcore to get things going. It’s also worth noting that this is a “no photo/video show” also and I have to admit it’s quite refreshing to not have to twist my neck a bit to see through a sea of phones recording the entire first song.
They’ve nailed the sound mix too, you know it’s good when the bass player can noodle around pretty far up the neck and it still sounds meaty! The singer’s clearly enjoying a lot of banter with the audience too, just that little bit of being silly and having a good laugh while performing adds a lovely bit of charm. Of all the possible covers they could have done, I have to admit I did not have my money on ‘Wicked Game’ and to their credit their singer absolutely smashed it too, not an easy song to cover properly.
These guys are the real thing when it comes to playing to an audience that probably largely has no idea who they are though. The singer jumps into the middle of the room for a proper stomp around the crowd and manages to get everyone on side by singing the main chorus hook of “I’m doing just fine” without any hesitation: excellent work.
And now with the mic stand firmly planted right in the middle of the crowd, he’s established himself firmly as the centre of attention: ballsy move! If you want an absolute masterclass on how to get a new audience on your side and really into your stuff, this is it. A great sounding mix, a charismatic front man and going to the crowd if they won’t come to you. Absolutely stellar show and a fantastic opener.
Man With A Mission for this tour have a projection image of their faces done in the style of Mt Rushmore with a bit of stylized art, it’s Man With A 15th Mission. The wolves take the stage to whoops, claps and cheers, it’s time to get stuck into a bit of top tier J-rock!
There’s a very unique thing about a lot of J-rock audiences that I’ve noticed over the years and with the exception of the heavier acts, most of the crowd is much more focused on having their arms in the air and jumping around but not shoving each other around in a pit and I really enjoy the vibe of it. It’s essentially just one big party and a great time enjoying the music in a very different way to the heavier shows I go to. The mix of solid riffs, epic choruses, rap segments and with a good dose of Japanese approach to songwriting, Man With A Mission are an exceptional band to witness live!
The band requests the crowd to kneel down for a bit of jump up action but one man stands defiantly in the middle of the crowd and Johnny tries to get him to join in but the guy just shrugs and doesn’t budge, oh well, literally everyone else did!
Man With A Mission embodies what I love about rock and metal from Japan, there’s just so little constraints of convention in what they do. You want a pop punk chorus mixed with rapping? Gotcha. You want massively enthusiastic piano playing during a breakdown? No problem, chief. Anything goes and I fucking love it.
As for the live shows? Just a full on balls to the wall rock show, they’re going to play at 200 per cent and you’re gonna know about it and get sucked into it one way or another. They seem to be suddenly surprised by someone shouting from the audience “Man With?” and the rest of the crowd responded with “A Mission!”, but they remark on how it’d be nice doing that everywhere.
Their mid set movie is extremely silly and revolves around the band being absolutely terrible at touring expenses, consistently getting big laughs throughout. Seems they’ve had to pick up day jobs to help finance the tour, continuously ridiculous and hilarious, the antics of using a caterpillar digger to do precision jobs like picking up pudding with a spoon or using a spray can with the audience building up to the success is brilliant.
Two separate ‘My Hero Academia’ intros do not go amiss though, ‘Merry Go Round’ as a follow up to the earlier ‘My Hero’ kick-starts more crowd chants on the chorus, the band don’t even need to bother trying because everyone here is just doing it anyway! Everyone at this show fully understands the assignment, almost every song has its own little bit of interaction and clearly people here have either seen the videos or the band before and know exactly what to do every time. As we near the end of the main set, the wolves’ eyes finally light up the haunting yellow as their synth and effects member dives into the crowd for a bit of crowd surfing action.
Sadly due to some huge transport issues I had to duck out pretty sharpish after the main set ended and miss the encore. I hate having to do this but it was either that or the return journey becomes about four hours due to the rerouting but it is what it is!
The show itself was absolutely fantastic on the whole, as Man With A Mission never fail to put on an amazing show that is just incredible fun. They absolutely adore what they do and pour their hearts, souls, and I suppose their fur into everything they do and it’s reflected in how their crowds always respond to it. Absolutely, fucking, awesome.