I was so much older than the rest of the crowd that it was like I didn’t even exist.\u00c2\u00a0 Andrew McMahon’s parents were in the audience, he pointed them out deep into the show.\u00c2\u00a0 I was stunned to see they were contemporaries.\u00c2\u00a0 And there was this old man walking around who might have been his grandpa, but other than them I was DECADES older than everybody in the audience.\u00c2\u00a0 No one wanted to talk to me, no one gave me a second look, I was completely invisible.<\/p>\n
This was not the hipsters.\u00c2\u00a0 They might read PerezHilton, but they’re not featured on the site, there’s no scribbling on their photos.\u00c2\u00a0 Today’s kids have got their pulse on everything, the breadth of their knowledge far exceeds that of their parents.\u00c2\u00a0 But what they dedicate their time to truly moves them, or they move on.<\/p>\n
Hit songs are for a laugh, or a bump on the dance floor.\u00c2\u00a0 The antics of the drama queens and the has-beens are just that.\u00c2\u00a0 Train-wrecks to be observed and then discarded.\u00c2\u00a0 The mainstream media is ramping up the publicity, imploring this generation to pay attention, to stay focused.\u00c2\u00a0 And when these young people don’t, they’re accused of having a short attention span.\u00c2\u00a0 But they just have incredible shit detectors, they don’t want to spend time with anything but what truly affects them, that penetrates them.<\/p>\n
I didn’t see a plethora of tattoos, no teeter-totter high heels.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, a few guys had emo-haircuts, but on stage only the bass player had his hair cut in a bizarre way.\u00c2\u00a0 The rest of the band was positively normal.\u00c2\u00a0 The drummer had a Don Henley afro.\u00c2\u00a0 The guitarist looked like he was pulled from math class.\u00c2\u00a0 And Andrew McMahon looked like he’d told his art or theatre teacher he had a conflicting appointment, and had gotten out on a pass.<\/p>\n
This whole generation has been ignored by the media.\u00c2\u00a0 Purveying its dieted-down stars and lame shoot-em-up\/explosion movies.\u00c2\u00a0 But the electronics manufacturers have tapped right in.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody had a cell phone.\u00c2\u00a0 I saw people tapping away on their Sidekicks.\u00c2\u00a0 And others holding up their mobiles transporting the music from this sold-out show to their buddies, to their answering machines.\u00c2\u00a0 I even saw someone recording the show on a hand-held device.\u00c2\u00a0 And everybody up front had a digital camera.\u00c2\u00a0 When the oldsters are trying to keep their public at bay, refusing to be photographed from the wrong angle, recorded if not in full voice, Jack’s Mannequin waved the audience in.\u00c2\u00a0 Andrew wanted everybody to come on down, for the ritual.\u00c2\u00a0 Of singing along at the top of your lungs to your favorite songs.\u00c2\u00a0 Of being transported from this world with too many bills and little future to one where the flame burns brightly.<\/p>\n
The girl behind me had a complexion not built for HDTV.\u00c2\u00a0 But as she sang along with every word what struck me most was her halitosis.\u00c2\u00a0 She’d probably never had a date.\u00c2\u00a0 But tonight, her life was better than a night out at a movie with someone who would instantly forget her.\u00c2\u00a0 Jack’s Mannequin cared about her.<\/p>\n
Sure, there was an obese girl behind me, but there were plenty of fresh-scrubbed kids who were far from losers.\u00c2\u00a0 And although there might have been a few more girls than boys, males were out in full force, they were the most vociferous singers in my neighborhood.<\/p>\n
They didn’t track me down to go to this show.\u00c2\u00a0 I wanted to go, I needed to go.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s so rare you hear new music that you like, that you want to hear again.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not often you want to play the whole album.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s how I felt about Jack Mannequin’s "Everything In Transit".<\/p>\n
The lawyer told me Andrew had gotten leukemia.\u00c2\u00a0 That he’d been in Something Corporate.\u00c2\u00a0 But I could detect the enthusiasm, the belief in this attorney’s missive to me.\u00c2\u00a0 He wanted to give this music a good shot.\u00c2\u00a0 And I’m glad he did.\u00c2\u00a0 Because I love "Into The Airwaves".<\/p>\n
From an empty room on the first floor<\/span> That’s what Andrew did.\u00c2\u00a0 He sat at the lip of the Troubadour’s tiny stage and banged the keys like he truly meant it.\u00c2\u00a0 He even stood atop the piano, not in a fuck you Billy Joel way, but in an expression of sheer exuberance.\u00c2\u00a0 He’d written songs in his basement at sixteen, he was now thankful to be able to play rock music for a living.\u00c2\u00a0 HE SAID SO!<\/p>\n From the corner by the studio<\/span> These are not lyrics written by committee.\u00c2\u00a0 So bland they can work in countries where English is not just the second language, but oftentimes the third or fourth, or completely unknown.\u00c2\u00a0 This is directly from Andrew’s heart to you, you feel like he’s speaking to you.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, he’s cut all his records in that studio in Santa Monica, by the Third Street Promenade.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s where he goes to be inspired, it’s where he concocts these numbers that mean so much to you.<\/p>\n The other classic track from "Everything In Transit" is "The Mixed Tape".<\/p>\n Where are you now?<\/span> Heartbreak isn’t about buying a new pair of shoes and sleeping with someone else.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about waking up with them still on your mind, just like when you went to bed.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s wanting to close the curtain, shutting out the light.<\/p>\n This was the highlight of the evening, the song that put the crowd into a frenzy.<\/p>\n I don’t know what Andrew McMahon’s dream is.\u00c2\u00a0 Whether he’s into the same world domination as the hard rock bands.\u00c2\u00a0 If so, I’d hate to tell him such a concept is history.\u00c2\u00a0 That it’s most important to garner an audience, by being honest, by respecting your fans, treating them right, making your music solely for them.\u00c2\u00a0 If this is Andrew’s goal, he’s achieved it.\u00c2\u00a0 His fans don’t need him in the newspaper, don’t need him on the cover of "Rolling Stone", they just need his music on their iPods, so they can dial it up when they feel alone and need company, when they have a personal victory and want to share it with someone, when they want to believe their life will work out.<\/p>\n "The Mixed Tape" starts with a soft guitar riff and then Andrew McMahon starts singing quietly.\u00c2\u00a0 But then the track EXPLODES!\u00c2\u00a0 And it runs at a about a hundred miles an hour almost throughout, as if Andrew is trying to squeeze all the bad feelings, all the anger out of his brain through the playing.\u00c2\u00a0 But at the end of the song, all the other instruments fall out, it’s just Andrew playing the piano riff, again and again, and then he slows the number down and sings:<\/p>\n Where are you now?<\/span> Where do they go after you’ve broken up?\u00c2\u00a0 They should be dead, they can’t be continuing their lives.\u00c2\u00a0 They can’t be talking to anybody else, they can’t be laughing, they can’t be going forward.\u00c2\u00a0 Because you’re stuck.\u00c2\u00a0 And the only thing that says exactly how you feel is music.\u00c2\u00a0 The lyrics jump out of the stereo, from your earbuds, the singer knows you, exactly how you feel.\u00c2\u00a0 If only you could send her this song, maybe she’d understand, maybe she’d come back, maybe everything would be all right.<\/p>\n And this is my mixed tape for her<\/span> That’s the power of music.\u00c2\u00a0 And last night at the Troubadour the music was quite powerful, enough to sustain a life, keep a person going.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn’t for you, but for those in attendance, it was…everything.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was so much older than the rest of the crowd that it was like I didn’t even exist.\u00c2\u00a0 Andrew McMahon’s parents were in the audience, he pointed them out deep into the show.\u00c2\u00a0 I was stunned to see they were contemporaries.\u00c2\u00a0 And there was this old man walking around who might have been his 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As the cars pass by the liquor store<\/span>
I deconstruct my thoughts at this piano<\/span><\/p>\n
The gold-soaked afternoon comes slow<\/span>
I deconstruct my thoughts and I am walking by<\/span>
On Third Street, the freak show thrives<\/span>
Santa Monica’s alive, but<\/span>
Something’s not so right inside<\/span>
Living with the news<\/span><\/p>\n
As I’m swimming through the stereo<\/span>
I’m writing you a symphony of sound<\/span>
Where are you now?<\/span>
As I rearrange the songs again<\/span>
This mix could burn a hole in anyone<\/span>
But it was you I was thinking of<\/span>
It was you I was thinking of <\/span>
It was you I was thinking of<\/span><\/p>\n
Where are you now?<\/span><\/p>\n
It’s like I wrote every note<\/span>
With my own fingers<\/span><\/p>\n