Gil Mantera’s Party Dream

While Gil Mantera’s Party Dream makes more-or-less sincere and angst-filled electro-emo, you’d never guess it from the duo’s live shows. On stage, the brothers from Youngstown, Ohio, dance, prance and make general asses of themselves with giddy, homoerotic abandon and total disregard for any hangups the audience might have. Gil mans the electronics, sings and occasionally assaults a guitar, while Ultimate Donny grips the microphone and shakes his stuff like a glammed-out, methed-up and utterly unserious Tommy Gnosis. During the pair’s spandex- and speedo-stuffed sets — which have earned them as many haters as rabid fans — it’s sometimes hard to tell where their sweat ends and the crowd’s begins. Of course, the dancing and horseplay are mere misdirection, designed to distract onlookers from the fact that very little of the music is being performed live. It hardly matters, however, since the tunes gladly take a back seat to the duo’s thoroughly entertaining and terrifyingly energetic theatrics.