By Tammy Tran
The West Coast Winter Tour was featured at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. This sold out show had three openers for the main attraction, Jack’s Mannequin. The show was a perfect example of the expression “save the best for last.”
The first opener, We Are The Fury, was less than good. Like many other performers, their lead singer pumped up the crowd with typical questions to which fans responded by screaming in excitement. Although a good way to get a crowd excited, “Are you ready to rock tonight?” gets to be a bit redundant and annoying after it is asked after every song.
Another memo that the band did not receive was that one cannot clap to every song. The audience was constantly told to clap their hands or shake their butt or stomp their feet. It would have been much wiser to let the attendees decide upon their own reactions.
The second opener, The Audition, played 30 minutes of music resembling that in the soundtrack for Stars Wars. Thankfully the cheese factor in this band was greatly lowered from We Are The Fury, which may be why the band had a bigger following.
The last opener was one that is no stranger to the University. This third band, Head Automatica, was a performer at Hofstra USA this past September. During their 40-minute set, they played crowd favorites like “Beating Hearts Baby” and this past summer’s single “Graduation Day.” The lead singer from We Are The Fury also returned to stage and performed a song with Head Automatica.
After much anticipation, Andrew McMahon from Jack’s Mannequin finally came out on stage and faced his screaming fans. McMahon is the former lead singer/pianist for Something Corporate – a rock band from California that decided to take a break in 2004. This is when McMahon started his side project.
The band’s debut album was released in 2005, which was the same year that McMahon was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. In addition to informing the audience that he was actually diagnosed with cancer while in New York City, he also let everyone know that he is now a “healthy man.”
The combination of mesmerizing lights, McMahon’s soothing voice and the sound of piano being played, the crowd was captivated from the first song. The band played tracks from their album, Everything in Transit including favorites like “The Mix Tape” and “Miss Delaney.” Although the band only has one record released, they kept things interesting by mixing up the songs with different musical intros.
The band also performed “Last Straw” and, since the song was never officially released or put on an album, McMahon said he would understand if the audience was to illegally download the song.
In addition to playing their own songs, Jack’s Mannequin surprised the crowd by performing two Something Corporate singles: “She Paints Me Blue” and “Punk Rock Princess.” The latter was performed slower than normal but the crowd still sang along and accepted it with cheers and applause.
After playing a one-hour set, the band came back out to play a half-hour encore. During this time they covered “Message In a Bottle” by The Police.
Before leaving the stage for good, McMahon had one last surprise. He leapt into the crowd and surfed to the back of the venue and then back onto stage. It was a great ending to a fantastic concert.
