After a brisk walk from seeing the legendary L7, we took a chance to see what’s happening over at Jake’s Stage – the smallest stage at Download Festival. What happened in the next 25 minutes following from this has yet to still be properly explained, so let’s just go ahead with what was witnessed.
A bunch of dudes on stage in what can only be perceived as giant husky heads, or wolf heads – some with glow in the dark eyes. With the addition of one guitarist wearing a kabuki mask. All playing some rather weird and wonderful cacophony of unusually upbeat and lively music. Now on first impressions one would beg the question… “who slipped acid in my pint earlier?”, because none of what was happening on stage made any sense. But in some very peculiar and obscure way, it made perfect sense.
A mixture of off kilter alternative music with an unashamed bashing of electronica, an incredibly engaging and mesmerising stage show and audience participation, and some actually bloody great musicianship! Watching Man With A Mission was kind of like watching a cartoon come to life with a pretty wonderful soundtrack to accompany. But sometimes in life, there are some things that are just best left unexplained and to be enjoyed in the moment… Man With A Mission are exactly what that personifies. So for that reason alone, much respect!
