This past week has had the most concerts I’ve seen in quite some time! The third, and not last of them, was Here Come the Mummies!
I know what you’re thinking. Didn’t you just see them in the fall? Yes! I think it has barely been six months since I saw Here Come the Mummies live, but my thought was maybe this is their tour for the year, so why would I not go? Turns out they will also be touring in the fall, so I can’t count it out that I won’t see them again. Is the setlist different? Hell no! I think it’s been almost identical every time I’ve seen them. And that’s not to say they have any shortage of music. In fact, a quick search shows me that they actually have tweleve full length albums! Though the last one was released in 2022.
But, they did just release an EP, something that haven’t done since 2014! And two of those songs made their way onto the setlist for the night. One of those songs was brand spanking new when I saw them in the fall, so it was cool to hear that again along with another new track. Both were fun, as all of their songs are. If I’m being honest, I have no clue if those songs replaced anything, or if they just make the set longer to include them. I’d like to believe it’s the latter! Of course the classics made it in, like “Freak Flag,” “Ra Ra Ra,” and “Pants,” but I personally will never get tired of hearing “Kinda Lingers” and “Attack of the Wiener Man.”
They always kind of lose me towards the end with “Slide on Down,” “Make It Shake,” and “Single Double Triple” as the trio of songs that get played before the encore. I suppose I understand why they save the until the end. They either have fun and unqiue solos (like double saxaphones for only one mummy!) or an exciting amount of audience participation. But for me they don’t quite have the catchiness of a lot of their other songs. But still, consistenly ending the show with “House Party” is always the correct move.
Something else I always love about going to a Mummies show is doing some hardcore people watching. Typically, the crowd is an older one. In fact, at least in the radius that I could see around me, I was the youngest person there by possibly ten years! So it’s also a largely sitting crowd, though you do see heads moving around and the occassional rise of fists in the air. But, there are groups of people, at least at this particular venue, who stood most of the time off to the sides. They were copying the dances that the Mummies did on stage, and a good deal of them were also dressed in Egyptian themed Halloween costumes. Amazing.
As I’ve said before, Here Come the Mummies is one of the biggest and most delightful surprises I could have stumbled upon at Bunbury back in 2016 – a whole ass decade ago! And for those of you that missed the spring stops, you can still see them in the fall!