Man Man — Take Away Show, Paris, 2008

Filmed in Paris in 2008 by Vincent Moon for La Blogothèque, this Take Away Show captures American band Man Man in the format that made the series famous: a roving live performance recorded with no stage and no safety net. On “A Day at the Races and a Night at the Opera,” the Philadelphia group unfurls its unhinged chamber-rock — makeshift percussion, feverish piano and hollered harmonies — across two movements that Moon himself frames as a gentle “Side A” and a “Side B” that flips it entirely. The handheld camera and on-the-fly sound give this filmed live concert a raw intensity far removed from polished studio captures. That is the whole spirit of the Take Away Show: to bring the viewer close to the musician, in the street or an ordinary room, until you can hear the breath and the scuffing. A telling document of the late-2000s indie scene and of La Blogothèque’s documentary craft, a benchmark for filmed live performance in France.