Benjamin Brinkman's MOAM Page

Aliens take over La Luna

An account of events by Ben Brinkman

Photos by Ben Brinkman

(click on small photos for larger version)

The Earth-captive space-geek band known as Man.. or Astroman? performed before a 200+ crowd of Earthlings at La Luna on April 10, 1997, along with The Pulsars and the opening act, The Brainwashers.

For those not "in the know," MoA? are gaseous energy forms who originate from another sector of the galaxy and crash-landed in Alabama in 1992. Much like ALF, they are unable to leave the planet until they can rebuild their ship after locating all it's components which were scattered all over the planet in the crash. The most non-conspicuous way of retreiving these lost parts was to "tour" as a earth rock band. The lineup of MoA?: Drums-Birdstuff; Guitar/Vocalist-Starcrunch; Rhythm guitar-Dexter X; Bass-Coco the Electronic Monkey Wizard. What...? You think space aliens would have earth names?

From behind a stage ornamented in tubing, coils, circuits and spotlights, MoA? emerged, immediately winning over applause and all attention. Without intro, they started an astoundingly clear but thunderingly loud set. The performance coming weeks before the release of their new CD/EP entitled 1000X, MoA?'s set consisted of a few brand spankin' new songs, mixed in with a few older "hits". With more vocal songs, MoA? played recent favorite, 9 Volt, and the classic Destination Venus along with one off the newest album, Like a Giant Microwave. Tiring of the same old surf sound, their newer rock is less surf-oriented and more spacious (pardon the pun) with more distortion and strange sound effects, while still maintaining the trademark energetic and good-humored stage show, complete with 50's b-movie sci-fi and driver's ed film strips projecting onto a sheet hung behind the band.

During a humorous attempt to orchestrate his Theremin, an electronic flying-saucer noise-generator during the song Principles Unknown, Coco became frustrated with its uncooperativeness and set it on fire, as was his television set helmet during Nitrous Burnout. The 45-minute set climaxed with Coco pulling out his master creation, a six-foot Tesla Coil, producing lightning bolts that danced over the stage, producing the gas that the Ozone layer is made of, O3.

Soon after, MoA? swiftly left the stage, leaving the scent of O3 lingering in a club filled with smoke, cheers, and loose electricity. I tell ya, there's nothing like the smell of ozone in the morning. It's the smell of victory.

This article originally appeared in the April 18, 1997 issue of The Highlander, the student newspaper of David Douglas High School. The original article and photos are by Benjamin Brinkman. Html conversion, photo scanning and layout were done by Michael Kepler, who also donates this portion of his web space.

The opinions and recollections expressed in this article are those of Benjamin Brinkman and not neccessarily those of Michael Kepler or anyone else. Michael Kepler's own page reviewing this same show, with color pictures grabbed from video tape shot at the concert, will also be forthcoming soon. (As soon as I can borrow, rent or buy a "snappy" or similar device.)

"Man.. or ASTRO-man?" and numerous typographical variants on the same name as well as the names of the band members are the copyrighted property of "Man... or ASTRO-man?" 1997.

This page is intended as "fan" or "tribute" page and is not intended as a substitute for ASTRO-discs, the official web page or any official merchandise or event. This page is not created or operated for profit of any kind other than the prestige of having created a really cool MOAM page.