video footage courtesy of MN Stories

Local maniac Mark Mallman pulled out all the stops at his annual New Years Eve show at the Varsity Theater Wednesday night. Mallman, playing with members of the Melismatics and joined by various guests throughout the show, played his usual highly energetic set to a raucous and well lubricated crowd. If you never have had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Mallman live, his theatrics include, but are not limited to: straddling (read: humping) the keyboard, performing fellatio on the microphone, standing on his keyboard stool and crawling around on the stage wailing into the microphone. He supplemented his upbeat piano rockers with some great covers that the crowd really ate up, including “Kids” by MGMT, “Wake Up” by Arcade Fire and “Cut Your Hair” by Pavement.

After driving a scooter over a keyboard last New Years Eve, and claiming to be the first person to ever do it, I was wondering what Mallman would do to try and top his act this year. His yearly wacky stunt turned out to be Mallman being suspended above the cheering crowd by a hook on the back of his cape, which he slightly over zealously described as “flying.” The move, which was classic attention loving Mallman, looked fairly painful and I thought for a second he was being choked by the harness, but he then summoned a leaf blower with a streamer on the end and shot it out towards the awed crowd in a display that hopefully was caught in all of its glory by one of the photographers there that night.

When he wasn’t playing indie-centric covers or flying over the crowd, he played an hour long set that featured many of his best songs , including “Death Wish” and “22nd Ave Knockout.” This was Mallman’s third year of playing the Varsity, and judging by the nice crowd that came out on a freezing night and the rapturous show that Mallman and his cohorts put on, I would suspect that there will be more wild eyed debauchery in the coming years. Next years show may still be a year away, but mark it on your calender folks. It is a show that should not be missed.

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