Jack’s Mannequin Concert!

This coming Sunday, I am going to Le Moyne College in Syracuse to attend a Jack’s Mannequin concert, and I am so excited! For those of you who haven’t heard of the band or have heard of them but don’t know anything about them, I’ll give you an overview.

Jack’s Mannequin sort of formed in 2004 when piano rock group Something Corporate (a band that actually played here at SUNY Oswego that same year) decided to take a break and frontman Andrew McMahon began writing music for a solo album. Needless to say, the solo project ended up becoming Jack’s Mannequin, currently having spawned singles such as “The Mixed Tape,” “Dark Blue” and “The Resolution.” In 2005, prior to the album’s release, McMahon was diagnosed with acute lymphatic leukemia and was immediately hospitalized in New York City. This obviously delayed the release of the album as well as additional promotional work that would have otherwise went into it, and the album was finally released on August 23 of that year. What I find interesting is that this is the same day that Andrew received a stem cell transplant from his sister Katie, which would indicate that that had to have been an all-around happy day for him.

The debut, Everything in Transit, was followed up by The Glass Passenger which was released on September 30 of this year. The concert at Le Moyne is part of the Hammers and Strings tour which is in correlation to The Glass Passenger. The band will be playing music from the new album.

I became a fan (fan is probably not a sufficient word) in May of this year, when my best friend bought me a copy of Everything in Transit for my birthday. The first time I listened to it, I immediately fell in love with it, and Jack’s Mannequin pretty much immediately became my favorite band. I liked it that much. The well-written and vehement lyrics helped pull me out of a hole that I was in at the time, and the style of the music was like nothing I had ever heard before. I have actually heard people say that they don’t have their own sound and that they pretty much sound just like every other band out there, but I couldn’t possibly disagree more. If you name one singer who sounds anything like Andrew McMahon or one band that has a sound that is anything like Jack’s Mannequin, I’ll give you a cookie. I say that, because I don’t have any cookies, and I guarantee you that it’s not something I’m going to have to worry about.

Anyway, ever since May, I have been praying for a chance to see them live, and now I finally have a chance. I can’t wait for the show. Do we have any other JM fans on campus that would like to share their love for the band? I’m definitely all ears to that!