Manwolves Live- An Experience Years In The Making

MANWOLVES logo

 For those who know me closely, the name MANWOLVES is immediately recognizable- whether it be from me constantly playing their songs in the car or from my persistent recommendation to listen to these guys from Chicago. MANWOLVES has got to be one of my favorite bands that I've had the pleasure to listen to over the years.

I've been listening to these guys for almost 8 years by this point, and they have a special place in my heart as one of the first bands I found all by myself, that wasn't known by anyone else. Obviously, there's room for a joke to be made about "ooh behold how underground and niche my music is", but legitimately, when I had discovered their music, they had only published 5 songs, and each of them were BANGERS. So yeah, I was amongst their first 2000 listeners, which sounds... less impressive than I'd hope, but I promise it's a big deal. At least, it was to me.

Anyways, fast forward to November 2023. As I was enjoying my life as a college student, I had the dumbest realization: dude. I'm on my own. I have free will. I should totally go to band gigs whenever I want. And of course, the first band on my list was MANWOLVES. At this point, they are probably the band I've stuck with the longest, so I figured it'd be a fantastic celebration of being free, and I booked my tickets to Orlando.

Unfortunately, tragedy struck. As I woke up on the floor after crashing at my buddy Nick's apartment for the night in Orlando, I saw a post on social media that made my stomach drop. They had cancelled the tour literally on the day I was supposed to see them... their bus had broken down and screwed the schedule, and so that was the end of that.

Sometimes, things simply don't work out. I was just horribly unlucky, and my soul was just a tiny bit crumpled.  Things got better over my stay in Orlando, since I got to hang with some friends I had missed in the few months we had lived apart, and I got to meet up with my family to celebrate my Dad's birthday. While this definitely helped with getting over the clear disappointment I had, the void remained within me. 

However, come March 2024, a new light shone down upon me. They had announced a new tour, that would be happening at the same location in Orlando, but it would be the week before my college final exams. Naturally, I did the irresponsible thing and immediately bought tickets and made my plans to stay with my friend Angelo for a few days. With my hope reinvigorated and my wallet drained, I eagerly looked forward to getting to watch them perform the next month!

Eventually, the day came, and I hitched a ride with a few other friends who were going to Miami and asked them to drop me off in Orlando on the day of the gig. I dropped my stuff at Angelo's, stopped by to meet some friends I had made through Twitter, and then it was time to call an Uber to Will's Pub, the venue where the gig was taking place.

Now, as much as I had enjoyed the night, it would be remiss of me to not mention several things that went a little wrong before things got better. First, my Uber driver's car had absolutely no seatbelts, on account of his vehicle being altered because he was disabled. I didn't mind it until I was shown no mercy by the ever-threatening Orlando traffic that faced me, as I was tossed asunder between the seats (obviously I exaggerate, but every turn was so sharp and fast that I genuinely had to hold on to not be shifted aside).

Once I got to the venue and showed my ticket, I was informed that my buddy Angelo was not able to make it because of some work he had to do (as well as sorting out getting an air mattress for me to sleep on that night) so I was left alone in a pub I had never been in, in a city I didn't know. It wasn't my first time in a situation like this, but I did feel like the carpet had been yanked out from under me, so I was a little uneasy.

And then what made me the most uncomfortable: I was clearly the youngest guy there. Even my height couldn't save me- people would remark about the "youngsters here" and "kids who shouldn't be here" as I stood right next to them. Not a great feeling. I'm saying I was 19 in a room where the other youngest guy there was maybe 26-27 years old. Uh Oh.

Once the music started, however, most of my uneasiness had melted away. I enjoyed the two opening acts (one local band and a rapper who performed solo) but I was still waiting for MANWOLVES to go up. Finally, the time had come.

That right there is a quick (and horribly compressed) video of one of my favorite songs of theirs, Reaper. I'm not going to break down each and every song or post a video of each performance- I wanted this blog post to be more about the "experience" leading up to this moment rather than the gig itself.

I was really happy that they straight up asked the audience what they wanted to hear, old or new, and the audience responded with a resounding "old". It would've been easily possible that they'd take offense at the preference over songs that are half a decade old rather than their new stuff that they had been working on- but they didn't. They played the old classics with the same passion and gusto as they would have the new stuff, and I really respected that.

After the gig, I was second in line to buy some merch, and I got to chat with some of the band members there. Such kind, genuine people it was really kind of mind bending to just talk with guys I've been listening to for years. When I mentioned that I was a long time listener, they shook hands with me and thanked me, which I'm sure was just proper manners but it felt really nice, in a parasocial type way.

Overall, fantastic experience. I WILL be attending whenever I can, and hopefully next time will be closer to home !