10 Years in Transit – Jack’s Mannequin @ The Electric Factory
WRITTEN BY: MARISA BLACKWELL
At 9:15 p.m. on Saturday Jan. 30, the house lights went down and all the members of Jack’s Mannequin, new and old, were greeted by friends at the Electric Factory in celebration of the tenth anniversary of their 2005 album Everything In Transit. Tickets for the show went on sale in early December and the entire tour sold out in under an hour.
Playing to a packed, sold-out crowd of 3,000 at the Electric Factory doesn’t happen most days for an artist like Andrew McMahon, the pop punk superstar from Something Corporate, a band who was on the cusp of something great – or so they say – before their ultimate hiatus. In 2004, McMahon decided to take a leave of absence from the band to pursue a new project dubbed Jack’s Mannequin.
Everyone has a band that has helped him or her understand the days of feeling like a misfit or an outsider in the world. For most, McMahon has been a symbol of hope.
While mastering the album Everything In Transit, Andrew McMahon was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Not only is McMahon celebrating the album this year, he has something even bigger to celebrate: being 10 years cancer-free.
Walking onto the stage, Jack’s Mannequin jumped right in with “Holiday From Real,” the first track off of the album. Gliding through each song on the album with ease, there he was playing his legendary piano that has been with him since the start.
He began to play the first notes of “MFEO: Pt. 1 Made For Each Other – Pt. 2 You Can Breathe,” a two-part song roughly seven-minutes long, closing out the album.
“Maybe the world could look like this forever,” fans screamed as McMahon pointed to the crowd repeating the line over and over getting louder and louder with each breath.
When Everything In Transit came to a close, the band left the stage as a recording played. The recording heard is also featured on the 2015 re-mastered edition of the album available exclusively on vinyl.
“That’s the record,” McMahon said. “I guess we’ll keep talking; this tape is going to run out soon and then I’m going to have to buy more and I’m a real procrastinator so I probably won’t do that for a while. So until the next time, it’s been- uh- interesting but I’m glad that we have her done. Jack’s Mannequin. Everything In Transit.”
They came back out to play a handful of other fan favorites from later albums titled The Glass Passenger and People and Things. They surprised the fans with the ballad, “Hammers And Strings (A Lullaby),” and many around me began crying. This song is about the places McMahon has been with his piano, mentioning from a “box filled garage” to “dark punk rock clubs of 1000 American towns.”
Jack’s Mannequin ended the set with a cover of the Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers song, “American Girl.” Halfway through the song, McMahon began crowd surfing and fans began rushing to make sure he didn’t fall.
Whether they were fans of Something Corporate, Jack’s Mannequin or his newest project, Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness, everyone at the concert was there for a common cause: to reminisce in the music of the time in their lives when Everything In Transit came out and the impact it had on them.
Setlist:
Holiday From Real
The Mixed Tape
Bruised
I’m Ready
La La Lie
Dark Blue
Miss Delaney
Kill The Messenger
Rescued
MFEO: Pt. 1 – Made For Each Other / Pt. 2 – You Can Breathe
Into The Airwaves
–
Restless Dreams
Swim
Television
Bloodshot
Crashin’
–
Hammers And Strings (A Lullaby)
The Resolution
American Girl (Cover)
