Spectators poured in after Here Come the Mummies in a magnetic fashion and filled the viewing area, and the show began.
The temperature in the crowd rose as people were crammed tighter with every song. Back in the nearly bare serving area, Jesse Carnahan and Melanie Nading, from Columbus, Ind., sat across from each other in a booth as they took a break from the throng of observers.
“I think they’re great artists, but fighting that crowd is not worth it to me,” ?Nading said.
Carnahan said they had already been inside the mob twice. He was ready to go back but didn’t want to leave his companion, he said.
Meanwhile, HCTM jammed in the background: “We’re not here to judge ya, we’re just here to love ya. Let your freak, let your freak, let your freak flag fly.”
The audience at HCTM was immensely diverse in age and style, which ranged from neon pants to head-to-toe leather. It was an amalgam of individuals who had come to see HCTM play a set that was largely funk with rock and jazz components.
The Mummies played to the audience but interacted with each other during the show as well. Java, a vocalist and percussionist, said this a favorite part of performing.
“We have some running inside jokes that we play on each other that makes us laugh,” Java said in an email. “Fans sometimes see us smile or laugh at each other; this was likely due to one of such said jokes.”
In the front of the club, the coat check was full; 132 coats hung in the small area where not another could fit.
During “Innuendo,” the ends of one mummy’s white wrappings hung from his raised arms and swayed as his trumpet blared.
Bloomington resident Heather Sexton stood just outside the viewing area, where the Mummies’ heads were barely visible over the top of the crowd. She had seen HCTM at the Taste of Bloomington and heard them on “The Bob and Tom Show,” but she said this was her first time out in about three years.
“I really like these guys,” she said.
Both Sexton and Carnahan said they liked the Mummies’ insistence on keeping their identities secret.
“Their personality is mysterious because they don’t let you know who you are,” ?Carnahan said.
Java said when they aren’t performing, the Mummies plan for their tour, make props for their shows, and record and write new music. He also shared the Mummies’ pre-show ritual.
“The first thing that has to be done before a show is that Super Dave (our road and stage manager) has to rouse us from our semi-vegetative state,” Java said. “Dave often has to resort to the use of super-sized spatula and the promise of sugar, caffeine and sex.”
