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Showing posts with label jacks mannequin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jacks mannequin. Show all posts

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Andrew McMahon at The Viper Room



Show: Andrew McMahon
Venue: The Viper Room- Los Angeles, CA
Date: 1/9/13
Show #2

Last night I saw Andrew McMahon at The Viper Room in his first solo show post Jack's Mannequin. I was surprised to even hear about a show from him so soon after the Jack's Mannequin farewell show at the El Rey just this past November, but mostly just excited to see him again. He explained that his friends from Fun asked him to join their upcoming tour and he needed to get a band together much quicker than anticipated. Prior to this show, he said they had only rehearsed 7 or 8 times. So props to the band for getting everything together so quickly! They nailed it.

I'll briefly touch on his opening act since I plan on doing a full write up on them when I see them at Hotel Cafe this month, but I feel the need to mention them now I was so impressed with them. Their name is Pebaluna and they're an indie, acoustic duo (although they're usually a full band with 4 members, last night there were only 2) from Long Beach. The woman's voice was to die for, and when you put both of their voices together, it was something else. I recorded 2 songs, but I suggest you go get their album or check them out at their residency every Friday this month at Hotel Cafe here in LA.





Going into the show I had expected to hear an hour and 15 minutes of Andrew trying out new material he had been working on, throwing in 1 or 2 Jack's songs to keep the crowd happy, however that was not the case. He ended up doing only 1 new song, and the rest of the evening was filled with a mix of Jack's Mannequin and Something Corporate songs, although I'm not complaining! He did quite a few Something Corporate songs actually. Most notably "Konstantine", "Punk Rock Princess", "The Astronaut" and "21 and Invincible" (which he prefaced by saying he's too old to be singing anymore). I also couldn't help but laugh when the curtains opened up and I saw Jack's bassist Mikey up there with Andrew. No matter how much he says Jack's Mannequin is over, Jack's will always come alive every time he's on stage.



The new song he did was called "Learn to Dance". He let the crowd how nervous he was to try out the new song in front of an audience for the first time, but everyone loved it, including myself. I recorded the whole thing (below) so you can judge for yourself:


All in all, he was incredible as always. He said to keep an eye out for tour dates in the Spring time, so if he's not coming near you on this tour, there's still hope!

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Jack's Mannequin at The Viper Room

Show: Jack's Mannequin
Venue: The Viper Room, Los Angeles, CA
Date: 1/11/12
Show #1

Tickets for Jack's Mannequin at The Viper Room sold out as fast as they went on sale, and unfortunately, I was not one of the lucky ones to get a ticket. I was disappointed, but Voxhaul Broadcast was playing a free show that same night at The Satellite so I decided to go to that.

Wednesday night rolled around and as I got up to leave work and head over to The Satellite, I realized I couldn't bear the thought that Jack's Mannequin was going to be playing such an amazing, small venue and I wasn't going to be there. Last minute, I decided to go over there without a ticket, hoping for the best, and I'm so glad I did! Long story short, a very nice person was able to pull some strings for me and get me in for $20. WIN!

 
Opening Acts: Black Kettle and ??? (They said their name once and for the life of me couldn't understand what they said, which is really sad because they were great! I'll edit this post if I find out what it is)

Update 2/7/12- Mystery band is no longer a mystery! They commented on one of my videos of them to point out that their name is Erland. So there ya go, mystery solved.

Black Kettle: I got inside late so I only saw the end of the last song, but from what I saw they were pretty good. 2 girls, indie singer/songwriter types.

Erland: I loved everything about these guys. It was their first show, and they're good friends with Andrew. Andrew even produced one of the songs they performed. (See video here).


3 reasons to love these guys:
1) There's harmonica on almost every tune, what's not to love about that?
2) Songs are simple, sweet and melodic. Just right.
3) Andrew from Jack's Mannequin produced a few of their songs, so you can hear a little Jack's influence on those records.

Here's a little video about Erland and their time in the studio with Andrew:

Main Act: Jack's Mannequin
Jack's never puts on a bad show. They said they were doing the show in order to get some practice in preparation for their upcoming tour (can't wait for that!), so lucky for us they played a few songs they don't normally do including "Doris Day". (See video here)

See all my videos from this show on my YouTube page here

And now for pictures!


More after the break, click here