Jack's Mannequin @ The Riv, 2/16/07
I think I can safely say that there are very few people on the planet who love their job as much as Andrew McMahon loves his. The show that he put on in Chicago a few Friday's ago was the best concert I've seen all year and it was mainly due to the unbridled amount of joy and good cheer that Andrew was pumping out to his audience. I've since read a show review that implied Andrew was drunk for the entire show (he could have been, he's not shy about saying how fond he is of the drink and the Mary Jane). Instead I'm choosing to believe that he's a man who has a renewed vigor with life and chooses to enjoy every minute of it, appreciating all the things he has accomplished along the way.
The show was sold out and the vibe in the place was awesome and this proved to be both good and bad. Good because it was just a great, great show all around. There was singing and dancing and jumping (I love being able to feel free to dance and jump because everyone around me is doing it too) but bad because this show has now set the bar to which I will judge all the shows I see this year. The next one scheduled is My Chemical Romance at the Allstate Arena and I already know they are going to have to work so hard to trump this experience that they're probably not going to be able to do it. I know, I'm pretty shocked to be saying that too.
Andrew likes to rock two microphones while he performs. This is really my only beef; I feel that this is a little show-boaty. Andrew, If one mic is good enough for Ben Folds it's good enough for you too.
He capped off the show with the longest version of "MFEO" ever, wherein he had his bass player, drummer and guitar player each do solos after introducing them to the audience. Andrew would do a little dance while they were playing. Let me tell you, Andrew can't dance.
A big thanks to the chick in the front who took these awesome pics and posted them to her photobucket for me to steal and repost here.
The show went much longer than I anticipated. Three other bands opened (We Are the Fury, local band The Audition and Head Automatica) that I had little to no interest in, and Jack's Mannequin played for a solid hour and a half. He also threw us a bone and played two Something Corporate songs ("She Paints Me Blue" and a stripped-down and totally kickass version of "Punk Rock Princess"), which was great for me since I never got a chance to see that band play live before they broke up. Making the evening all that much more enjoyable was the fact that I had my cousin Iris with me and that kid never ceases to entertain me. She's so sarcastic and bitter and funny and always surprises me with her fashion choices, which are totally all over the place. After the first band was done she unzipped her coat (which she kept on the entire time, I had to take mine off after The Audition was done with their set) to reveal a GIANT necklace in the shape of a diamond that was bejeweled with rhinestones! I had to take a picture with my phone:
This kid kills me.
The show was sold out and the vibe in the place was awesome and this proved to be both good and bad. Good because it was just a great, great show all around. There was singing and dancing and jumping (I love being able to feel free to dance and jump because everyone around me is doing it too) but bad because this show has now set the bar to which I will judge all the shows I see this year. The next one scheduled is My Chemical Romance at the Allstate Arena and I already know they are going to have to work so hard to trump this experience that they're probably not going to be able to do it. I know, I'm pretty shocked to be saying that too.
Andrew likes to rock two microphones while he performs. This is really my only beef; I feel that this is a little show-boaty. Andrew, If one mic is good enough for Ben Folds it's good enough for you too.
He capped off the show with the longest version of "MFEO" ever, wherein he had his bass player, drummer and guitar player each do solos after introducing them to the audience. Andrew would do a little dance while they were playing. Let me tell you, Andrew can't dance.
A big thanks to the chick in the front who took these awesome pics and posted them to her photobucket for me to steal and repost here.
The show went much longer than I anticipated. Three other bands opened (We Are the Fury, local band The Audition and Head Automatica) that I had little to no interest in, and Jack's Mannequin played for a solid hour and a half. He also threw us a bone and played two Something Corporate songs ("She Paints Me Blue" and a stripped-down and totally kickass version of "Punk Rock Princess"), which was great for me since I never got a chance to see that band play live before they broke up. Making the evening all that much more enjoyable was the fact that I had my cousin Iris with me and that kid never ceases to entertain me. She's so sarcastic and bitter and funny and always surprises me with her fashion choices, which are totally all over the place. After the first band was done she unzipped her coat (which she kept on the entire time, I had to take mine off after The Audition was done with their set) to reveal a GIANT necklace in the shape of a diamond that was bejeweled with rhinestones! I had to take a picture with my phone:
This kid kills me.