Concert review: Jack’s Mannequin at the Palladium (October 22)

by Shea Tellefsen of North Texas Daily

Jack's Mannequin produced nothing short of a real performance, but the opening bands left the audience with mixed opinions.

Although mannequins are fake, Jack's Mannequin produced nothing short of a real performance Wednesday night at the Palladium Ballroom in Dallas.

However, the opening bands left the audience with mixed opinions. The Treaty of Paris gave a run-of-the-mill, ordinary rock performance mixed with unnecessary arrogance and screeching notes.

On stage next was Eric Hutchinson. First surprising and then winning over his audience, he was Michael Buble and Gavin DeGraw melded together into one jazzy, upbeat musician.

Fans anxiously waited in the warehouse-like ballroom as the sound guys set up the infamous grand piano that sits on the stage at every show.

The crowd was roaring all at once as Jack's Mannequin took the stage. Lead singer Andrew McMahon played with passionate strokes on the grand piano, rising up off the bench to romance the microphone with his words as he played "Annie Use Your Telescope" from the band's new album, "The Glass Passenger," as the opening to its set.

Next came "Crashing" and "Spinning." These songs, along with every other song in the show, sounded impeccably like the band's recorded version. It was refreshing to discover the players were real musicians who were not vastly digitally altered in the studio.

As the concert went on, "The Mixed Tape" started out classic with McMahon standing on the bed of the piano. Through the rest of the song, it was as if McMahon were melodiously possessed by the music as he nearly flailed and convulsed behind his piano while belting out, "Where are you now/As I'm swimming through the stereo/I'm writing you a symphony of sound."

A few more songs, some from the 2005 album "Everything in Transit" flew by quickly.

The highlight of the night had to be when the band played one of its hit songs,,"Dark Blue."

First, the room grew still in awe, then it exploded into song when the lyrics came to "Dark blue, dark blue/Have you ever been alone in crowded room?" It was honestly four minutes of perfectly orchestrated, live heavenly bliss.

To end the night with a new hit, the band played "Resolution."

I only wish the show had stopped there.

The band came back for a five-song encore that included a cover to an MGMT song and a song by the disbanded Something Corporate. This encore managed to redeem itself when the band finished with an old hit, "La La Lie."

Minus the encore, the show was an absolute smash that left the audience captivated by almost every lyric.