JACK’S MANNEQUIN: It's a pretty safe bet that Jack’s Mannequin will never be among my favorite bands. Most of their songs power through in too high a key, and it's hard to recall specific rhythms and lyrics a minute after you've heard them. They’re like Counting Crowds without the dreds…or the memorable melodies. There’s no “Round Here,” no “Rain King,” no “Mr. Jones” – just a whole lot of earnestness.
All of that said, I couldn’t help but be impressed by the band -- frontman Andrew McMahon knew how to bring it live. He ran across the stage, he jumped on top of his piano, he made occasional use of profanity, etc. Some might not see how profanity could be considered ‘bringing it,’ but a short burst of expletives at a vanilla show can be very effective. Some members of the audience will think it adds edge to the performance; others will take it as comic relief. No one will be bored.
His comments between songs proved equally entertaining: “I love opening for Guster. I get to start each performance in a sunset – and finish beneath the stars!” He also told a funny story about his jeans: “I thought they were going to be too tight, but the doctor had to give me a bunch of medicine, and now, thanks to the steroids, the jeans fit just fine…”
The set actually did feature some solid songs (“Dark Blue,” “Bruised,” and “Holiday From Real”), but the point is McMahon’s personality took center stage. And as Bob Dylan and Jack Johnson have previously shown, a little charisma can go a long way…
Grade: B+
GUSTER: Jack’s Mannequin had charisma. Guster had a lot of charisma. Guster also had six albums of great songs to pull from. Here are some of frontman Ryan Miller’s many mid-song quotes that give an indication of Guster’s dominance:
--- “God, we have to go there every night. People can’t get enough of their ‘Chariots of Fire’ references!”
--- “Yes, Christine [Something], person who requested this on Twitter, it is time for your moment. We are about to play ‘Mayday Parade.’ [A barely audible shriek comes from the back of the auditorium.] Apparently Christine is here tonight.”
--- [Said with hilarious choppiness] “Will I be afraid? Will I be afraid? No, I will not be afraid. When the keyboard player randomly starts playing ‘Stand By Me’ as the fourth song in the set, I will not be afraid. Because everyone [beat] knows the chorus [beat] to ‘Stand By Me.’”
--- “We’re Guster. We started playing music a really long time ago, singing songs about Massachusetts. And here we are now, still singing songs about Massachusetts.”
--- “Alright, so this is the last song of our set. Then we’re gonna walk over there for 17 seconds and play our encore.” [They really were back in that amount of time!]
--- [After explaining that his mom wanted him to wear a Gravitron hat during a different song] “This really is a new low. What could be worse than listening to a 38-year-old dude work out his mommy issues in front of 4000 people?”
A lot of things could be worse, Ryan – a lot of things…
Grade: A
Endnotes: Here are two awesome realizations I had during the show:
(1) DAR Constitution Hall has great acoustics, but it drowns out vocals. Wolftrap has all of DAR's acoustics, and it actually improves vocals. The bands sound better than they do in the studio!
(2) The most important reason to get a good seat at a concert is not to be close to the band. It's to be close to people in the audience who actually care about the band. Seeing them anticipate each key change, hearing them join in each chorus...it's worth the price of admission.
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