\n“What it meant to be a ‘man’ in your 20s, sort of your chest out \u2026 nothing could stop you, invincible sort of thing,” Vannucci explained of The Man<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nThe group’s 2006 hit When You Were Young<\/em> was based off Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run<\/em>, and shares in the theme of youthful optimism.\u00a0Flowers himself is now 36.<\/p>\nOld Vegas<\/h2>\n
The Man<\/em> comes with plenty of visual references that celebrate classic Las Vegas.<\/p>\nThe Plaza in downtown serves as the casino for Flowers’ characters. Movie-making and video production are always a delicate dance in Sin City, in that the town loves the free publicity and image-enhancements it’s gained from Viva Las Vegas<\/em> to Ocean’s Eleven<\/em> and Jason Bourne,<\/em> but the massive production demands also impact every casino’s\u00a0raison d’\u00eatre<\/em> : gambling.<\/p>\n\n
The slightly seedy Plaza provides the video with both its pre-Steve Wynn-era vibe, while being no newcomer to being a production backdrop, either. Pink Floyd, Starship, Mase, Lil Wayne, and Iggy Azalea are just some of the names who shot their own music videos there.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The property’s fa\u00e7ade also served as Biff Tannen’s Please Paradise Casino Hotel in Back to the Future Part II<\/em>, and was the setting of a heated argument between Robert De Niro and Sharon Stone in one of the city’s all-time “ode to early Vegas” classic films, 1995’s\u00a0Casino<\/em>.<\/p>\nOscar Goodman, the city’s well-known former mayor, sits at a table with Flowers in The Man<\/em>. Back in his days as a criminal defense attorney, Goodman defended several of Las Vegas’ leading organized crime figures, including Tony “The Ant” Spilotro, the Joe Pesci character in Casino<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\nDuring the second half of the video, when Flowers’ multiple personalities begin to see their luck run dry, a fair amount of dramatic license kicks in. The cowboy gambler places his watch, jewelry, and even car keys as collateral on the table, something that might have happened in Deadwood, South Dakota in Wild Bill Hickok’s time, but not much since.<\/p>\n
References are also made to Evel Knievel’s 1967 failed jump over the Caesars Palace fountains.<\/p>\n
Any fan of Las Vegas, especially those with a sense of nostalgia for the city’s past, will likely enjoy identifying with\u00a0The Man<\/em>. It’s a pre-gender-fluid ode to boys-will-be-boys, and there’s nothing wrong with that.<\/p>\n