Manifest Destiny 

As I alluded in last week’s column, the big news on the local-music front this week is the return of renowned hip-hop hybrids Manifest Nexto Me, who take the stage again this Thursday at the Langdon Street Café in Montpelier. While the news is sure to delight the quartet’s legions of fans — Manifest were among Burlington’s most popular and well-traveled bands from 2001 to 2006 or so — it’s mildly inaccurate to call the show a reunion. Because, as keyboardist/vocalist Chris Kiper points out, they never really broke up.

“We elected for the ‘passive fizzle,’ which occurs when you just forget to keep being a band,” he writes in a recent email. Also, they started having kids. “I think we now have twice as many offspring,” he notes.

Adds bassist Will Schebaum, “In a certain way, we’ve always been ‘here’ and always will be. We don’t believe in the concept of apartness.”

Riiight … thanks for clearing that up, Will! But why come back now?

Kiper relays, perhaps with tongue in cheek, that part of the reason is to “promote our new album, Intermittent Resurrections.” Schebaum, meanwhile, offers a more direct response: It is “just damn fun rocking out some serious tradge-hop,” he shares.

Anyone who caught the band in its heyday would likely agree.

Manifest Nexto Me, which also include drummer PJ Davidian and vocalist Mike Morelli, will play tunes primarily from their last album, 2005’s Forever From Now On. That, Schebaum writes, is “almost even more relevant now than when it was written.” They’ll also unveil a few remixes and some new “dark and rugged” material penned by Morelli. “End-of-the-world shit,” Schebaum confides.

Manifest always had a flair for the cosmically dramatic.

Neither Kiper nor Schebaum would say for certain if the show is a portent of gigs (or albums) to come. Though, Kiper notes, “We emerge when our music feels culturally appropriate … when the cosmic paradox beckons for attention.”

So … Thursday?

One for the Road

Manifest aren’t the only local early-aughts throwbacks reuniting this week. B-town rockers The Lestons are saddling up for one last ride into the sunset — although, unlike Manifest, they actually did break up, about five years ago. They reemerge, apparently, when the cosmic paradox is thirsty.

Once upon a time, The Lestons, three-quarters of whom went on to become Party Star, were just about the drinkingest, rowdiest and, um, drinkingest band in town. But, as guitarist Matt Perry recalls, that didn’t always go over well with the audience. The band’s freshman record, the cheekily titled Their Self-Titled Debut, was soundly panned by then-7D music ed Ethan Covey. “In retrospect, I’m not thrilled with the product,” concedes Perry.

Having not heard the album — at least that I can recall — I’ll not quibble with my predecessor’s take. But I will say this: Any rock band with song titles such as “She Slipped Me a Rufie” and “All My Exes Live in Essex” are probably pretty raucous live. And that, my friends, is something to which I can absolutely attest. I caught The Lestons on several occasions back in the day — usually performing with Rock n Roll Sherpa — and always had a great time. If my liver can stand it, I just may make my way down to one of their two reunion gigs this weekend: Saturday at The Monkey House and Sunday at Radio Bean.

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