Jack's Mannequin at The Varsity Theater on 11/7/08
By: Patrick Strait
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Andrew McMahon of Jack's Mannequin
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If I can get tickets from the venue; I’ll go. If I can get in free; I’ll definitely go. But never once have I found myself hunting the internet, looking for a ticket to a completely sold-out show. After all, shows that sell out that fast are typically arena concerts that I don’t really care about anyways, and therefore I’ve never worked to get into one.
On this night the Varsity Theater hosted Jack’s Mannequin, the brain-child of Something Corporate front man Andrew McMahon, before a packed house.
The show sold out in one day, likely due to the fact that the Varsity show was one of the smallest venues on the entire tour. Like an idiot, I missed the original on-sale date and was forced to scour Craigslist in hunt of a ticket. After weeks of searching I finally tracked down someone who was unable to attend the show and I was on my way.
McMahon and company did not disappoint, tearing through 90-minute set that relied heavily on new material from the band’s latest album, The Glass Passenger, along with their previous albums and even a few covers.
While the crowd was clearly satisfied with the song selections from the new album including “Swim,” “Hammers and Strings” and the hit single, “The Resolution,” the loudest cheers were reserved for the old-school hits such as, “Dark Blue” and “I’m Ready.”
Midway through the show, McMahon paused from his piano-rock anthems to engage the predominately underage crowd in conversation, taking time out to discuss the disgusting mustache that he sported on stage.
“I want to apologize for my gross mustache tonight,” McMahon joked. “I said I wouldn’t shave it until we had a bad show, and with how great you guys have been tonight I guess I’m just going to have to keep it for another day.”
The fact that the show was held in such a small venue added to the energy of the evening, as the band put everything they had into their performance, despite the fact that they had played for thousands more fans only a few months prior at the State Fairgrounds (but seriously? Who can get motivated playing at the Fair?).
As the evening began to wind down, McMahon joked about the all too cliché nature of encore performances.
“See how we did that? We left the stage for a couple of minutes so that you would think we were done, but we totally knew we were coming back out. Encores are such bullshit. I even have the encore songs on my set list in front of me.”
Bullshit or not, the encore delivered huge as the band kicked things off with the track “Miss California,” which also happens to be the bonus track off of their latest album. From there they jumped into a hodge-podge of material including a classic track from Something Corporate, an MGMT cover and the crowd-popping closer, “La La Lie.”
As the show came to a close, I pushed towards the door alongside a few hundred kids who looked to be at least five years younger than me. And while I may not have been in the same demographic as the college-aged kids surrounding me, I couldn’t deny that my online hunt to check out Jack’s Mannequin at the Varsity was worth every second searching and every penny spent.
Location Info:
The Varsity Theater
Artist Info: Jack's Mannequin
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