By WILL RATH
Pop-punk is a rich business. So, it's not surprising that faux-emo piano outfit Jack's Mannequin sold out at the Beaumont Club last Friday.
 |
| Andrew McMahon |
The first ten rows of standing room were a tight press of text-message-crazy teenage girls and their awkward boyfriends. The back of the club (you know, where the bar is) was mainly populated by bored looking twenty-something-year-old guys kicking cups around with their arms crossed. Add muddled acoustics and really, really (really) obnoxious security personnel to the mix and all of a sudden, you're at a poorly chaperoned Junior High mixer. On a Friday night. Yes!
Vedera, an alternative-pop band from Blue Springs, Missouri, opened up the show with five or six Cranberries-esque ballads that reeked of 90's confessional girl rock. I imagine lyrics like I don't want to deny my heart it's chance to feel / I don't want to deny my soul something real coming together in a pink diary, probably written in neon Jelly Pen while thinking about how awesome Jewel used to be before she sold out.
Lead singer Kristen May was lighthearted and enthusiastic throughout
the set, bouncing around on stage while trying to warm up the crowd
with hand claps. She switched between guitar and piano throughout the
set, but the defining characteristic of Vedera's sound were May's
powerful, melodramatic vocals.
 |
| Kristen May of Vedera |
Fun.,
with their catchy choruses and sugary, synth heavy indie feel, provided
a refreshing (but brief) interlude to a very predictable evening.
Frontman Nate Reuss--formerly of
The Format--won
my admiration early into the set by producing a flask between the first
few songs. Touring with Jack's Mannequin to promote their latest album,
Aim and Ignite, the band was not named in vain - the
dance-tastic, feel-good anthems were mainstream enough to fit with the
other acts, but not familiar enough to be old news. And they almost
conquered the bullshit acoustics of the Beaumont club.
 |
| Nate Ruess of Fun. |
Jack's
Mannequin was everything you would expect from a veteran emo band from
southern California: totally underwhelming. Lead singer Andrew McMahon
was like an unconvincing robot on stage, either dramatically pointing
off into the distance or standing on and jumping off of his piano for
no apparent reason (and to little effect). Most of his songs were about
girls or California or pianos or
cancer.
Twelve years of songwriting experience, and McMahon is still singing
about his piano? If you're going to sing about your instrument then you
should probably be doing something extraordinary with it--not pounding
out cookie-cutter emo anthems.
 |
| Andrew McMahon of Jack's Mannequin. (Awkward.) |
After
about three songs, the teenage body heat became unbearable (and a
little creepy), so I relocated to back of the venue. It felt right to
be sulking in the back with the arms-crossed crowd as McMahon and his
band played through most of their two studio albums. Like Vedera, the
band reproduces their studio work well on stage but leaves much to be
desired in the way of live entertainment.
A fan of rambling speeches between songs (it's the Beaumont, nobody
can understand you), McMahon unconvincingly promised one last song -
"Made For Each Other." In a particularly canned action that mimicked
much of their set, the band left the stage in an obligatory exit, and
McMahon returned for a solo performance of "Swim." The whole band
finished with "La La Lie," topped off by McMahon on harmonica.
 |
| Andrew McMahon makes more severely weird faces. |
Contrived
or not, the crowd didn't care - people were yelling and dancing up
until the few remaining seconds of the last song. There was even a
drunk guy hugging people towards the back of the venue. Audiences don't
always want emotional depth or musical virtuosity - they want to shake
their asses, and know that someone else out there shares their
frustration. And if ticket sales are any indicator, there are a lot of
people who find exactly that in Jack's Mannequin.
Setlist:
1. I'm
Ready
2. The
Resolution
3. The
Mixed Tape
4. In
Slow Motion
5. Last
Straw
6.
Spinning
7. Hammer
and Strings (A Lullaby)
8.
Holiday from Real
9.
Bruised
10. Dark
Blue
11. Miss
California
12.
Diane, The Skyscraper
13.
Bloodshot
14. Made
For Each Other
Encore:
15. Swim
16. La La
Lie
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