Words + Photos by Matt Di Paola
After opening as a soloist for the Lumineers this past summer, Dan Mangan brought his “Going Somewhere” Tour across Canada, including a stop at Montréal’s Le Studio TD on the always bustling Saint Catherine Street. The tour theme, a riff on the Peter Sellers’ film Being There reflects his latest and most tender hearted album to-date, Being Somewhere, which – Dan sardonically explains – is about “how it feels to exist right now with all of the intensities of the world as of late.”
If you’re familiar with Dan Mangan from his earlier albums, Nice, Nice, Very Nice, More or Less or his work on the soundtracks for Hector and the Search for Happiness or Netflix’s animated series Hilda, you’ll be familiar with his ability to blend sadness and humour. In conversation with Dan before the show, he shared his philosophy about how he approaches music.
“Life is a state of mind. We make a choice about how much we enjoy the world despite the pain. There’s so much pain in the world and our job is to seek the beauty despite the pain,” he observed.
“That’s in the lyrics and that’s in the songs, and that’s also in the intention behind the shows. For a couple of hours, I want people to feel like they were part of something that was bigger than all of us and just forget themselves for a little bit. I think there is a sense of belonging when you get a group of strangers, and you come into a room and sing together.”
This is how he structures his shows as well. It’s a community; a campfire; a modern day, non-denominational ceremony for music lovers.
The first part of the show started with requests from the crowd and a few jokes. How does he solicit the requests? Well, this is where Mangan’s commitment to his fans is apparent. For those who have been to his shows before, he gives his mobile phone number out to attendees through the community app and then texts his fans in each city asking for requests. Surprisingly, he actually also responds to almost all texts he receives; often at coffee shops, or on the tour bus, or in those moments in-between when he could just be taking time to himself. He also provides fans with an mp3 recording of the concert they attended about a week after the show.
Montreal’s show started with those requests, performed acoustically by Mangan, beginning with “The Indie Queens are Waiting,” his cover of Neutral Milk Hotel’s “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” and “For Him,” an unreleased sad/funny song about being being jilted by someone who has decided to date a vampire. The crowd participation ramped up with a “clap along” during “Sold” before moving into the heart wrenching song “Basket,” which was written about his grandfather as a reminder to stay lucid as long as possible before dementia sets in.
Leading into “Lynchpin,” Dan Mangan brought the full band in, reset their personal connection with the audience, and divided the audience into two parts to hum along with the band. It is this personal connection that Mangan maintains through the show – with the band, through eye contact with the fans and by creating many sing-a-long opportunities to bring people together – that creates community.
From Mangan’s perspective, “The best thing that we can all do is just try and make everyone around us feel good when we are in their presence. And that is the legacy that you leave more than anything, more than songwriting, is how you make people feel. And if people like themselves when you’re around, you’re a good person. And, so I feel like I want that to be my leading force, not just as a musician or as a public figure, but as just the person in the room. I want to look people in the eye. I want them to feel understood and heard.”
The setlist continued with fan favourites including “Troubled Mind,” “Road Regrets,” and the sombre, I-need-a-break-from-all-this, “Lay Low.” The band came together for a moving version of “In Your Corner (For Scott Hutchison),” which Mangan wrote as a tribute to the Frightened Rabbit’s lead singer following his death in 2018.
When asked about the writing of the song, Mangan explained: “I say it was written for Scott but the song, as it lives and breathes in 2023, is for anyone who’s feeling like the weight is a little bit too much right now. I think that we all do this sort of roller coaster of existential dread and purpose and anxiety and depression. And so the song is for anyone feeling the momentum of a down swoop. And anytime you’re on a down swoop, you’re sort of like, how long is this gonna last? And you’re hoping for it to get back up.”
“And if you can get outside and feel the fresh air and have the sun on your face and see the light every now and then, it’s helpful. I want it to feel like a cozy place, like a safe place for anyone who’s feeling that way, And I just, it kills me to think that Scott could foster so much joy for so many millions of people around the world, but yet couldn’t really feel it himself in the same way that, Robin Williams may have. It’s these people who are so good at sort of explaining the human condition and giving joy. But it’s just like they can’t do it for themselves.”
Mangan brought the audience in close for his last few songs, including another fan fav sing-a-long, “Robots” and then took the whole band and some portable lighting to the center of the venue’s general admission area, to create a true campfire feel for “All my People” and “So Much For Everyone.”
This is the root of Dan Mangan’s charm. He can seamlessly take on the weight of the world, singing the saddest of songs, all with a smile on his face, telling a few jokes, taking requests and then giving the audience his phone number and a big giant hug at the end of the night.
When Dan Mangan isn’t busy being a husband, father, youngest sibling, songwriter, and touring musician, he’s also bringing people together and building community as the co-founder of Side Door. According to Dan, Side Door is built on the “philosophy of, if your footprint cannot be wide, let it be deep.” The app allows hosts to offer their living room, backyard, office or storefront for example to artists wanting to create and perform in an intimate and memorable way for 40-50 of their fans at a time. So far, there are about 7,000 artists and 4,000 hosts in North America and they have paid out about $1.6 million to artists to-date. Check it out if you want to be a host or perform a living room style show.
Watch out for new music coming from Dan Mangan in 2024, as well as more touring. And if you’re a touring band in the U.S. looking for an opening band to warm the cockles of the audience’s hearts, give Dan a call. His number is easy to find.
