‘This night is electric,’ Andrew McMahon, front man for Jack’s Mannequin, told the crowd at the Blender Theater at Gramercy Saturday night in New York.’ The sentiment though, is an understatement, because the energy level was so high.
The night began with a performance from Treaty of Paris, who sang songs off of their album ‘Sweet Dreams, Sucker’. They were exceptional, especially for an opening band, and really should have been the second opener. Treaty of Paris was followed by Fun, who were only playing their second show. While they still needed to work kinks out of their performance, the ramblings of the lead singer were enough to amuse the audience until the main event. Both bands were forced to play an acoustic set due to the amount of equipment for Jack’s Mannequin as well as the size of the venue, but it only added to the uniqueness of both bands.
When Andrew McMahon hit the stage, the atmosphere of the Blender Theater was amplified. Jack’s Mannequin opened with ‘Crashin” of their new album ‘The Glass Passenger’, a song about McMahon’s fear that no one would be listening after the band’s break between albums. The fears were hopefully squashed as fans danced and sang along with McMahon for the entire two hour set.
The band played all the favorites from their first album ‘Everything in Transit’, including ‘Holiday from Real’ and ‘Bruised’ mixed with a selection from their new album. McMahon even dedicated one of the new songs ‘Hammers and Strings (A Lullaby)’, from which the tour got its name, to his best friend, his piano.
McMahon was a true showman, and Jack’s Mannequin sounds even better in person. One cannot feel the energy radiating throughout the crowd when listening to the albums. Andew McMahon not only sang and played piano simultaneously, but also managed to jump up and down and dance while doing both. At times he even climbed on top of his piano, across the keys to address the crowd and send paper airplanes into the audience. Not only was the night full of energy, but it was an intimate as well with McMahon sharing stories with the audience about his struggle with cancer and working with his charity The Dear Jack foundation.
The night was seemingly over after the encore, but McMahon announced that this would be the band’s second set. The songs included ‘Suicide Blonde’, ‘Cavanaugh Park’ from his Something Corporate days, and a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘I’m on Fire’.
By the last show of a tour, most bands sound worn and usually perform lackluster, but all of the bands sounded refreshed to the point of frenzy. Jack’s Mannequin even surprised the audience by saying that the concert was being filmed for an upcoming DVD, so you can catch the action of the phenomenal show soon.
Leave a Reply