Gig review: Jack's Mannequin

Published on Tuesday 1 September 2009 19:17

JACK'S MANNEQUIN *** QMU, GLASGOW

MAKING a long-overdue debut in Glasgow, with their venue upscaled from King Tut's to meet ticket demand, there was a lot of love and a surge of hormones in the room on Monday night for Jack's Mannequin, and for their singer Andrew McMahon in particular. In remission from acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, the emotive frontman married heart-wrenching lyrics with impassioned melodies, and dedicated Katie to the sister whose bone-marrow transplant saved his life.

Unsurprisingly, there's a defiant edge to the band's songs – those from last album The Glass Passenger especially – with recent single Swim an image-dense I Will Survive for emo kids.

The punchy, mid-tempo piano-pop of Crashin established the theme, McMahon often screaming lyrics that sounded like a wake-up call to himself that his world could implode again at any time. During the stomping Bloodshot, he climbed on to his piano stool and loomed over the crowd and they, in turn, raised their outstretched palms to acclaim him.

Titles like Bruised and Kill the Messenger suggest oppressive, navel-gazing angst, but the former is a bouncy, groove-led number, while Kill the Messenger's piano recalls the Police. McMahon acknowledging the debt by seguing into Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic.

For all their grim portent, sustained intensity and punk styling, Jack's Mannequin craft inoffensive pop not a hundred miles away from Ben Folds Five, albeit stripped of much of the wit and cranked up significantly louder.

Holiday From Real truly showcases McMahon's way with a melody, with individual hooks in the chorus, the verse and the bridge, as does The Mixed Tape and the harmonica-led La La Lie, any gauche quality to the lyrics all but obscured by their catchiness. A spirited rendition of Watch The Sky, a B-side from McMahon's time in Something Corporate, earns a rapturous reception, before a solo run through of Katie at the keyboard and the romping, clap-a-long You Can Breathe brought the show to a close.