Jack’s Mannequin Performs Heartfelt Set at Fillmore Detroit
Jack’s Mannequin is a sight for sore eyes as they graced the stage on November 11 at The Fillmore Detroit. The MFEO Tour (named for their 2005 song “Made for Each Other”) also served as a fundraiser for Andrew McMahon’s charity, the Dear Jack Foundation.
Fans were greeted with a commemorative paper ticket with a QR code to head to a service called Bootleg, where you can watch the performance from your specific date over again by paying a small fee (in this case, $10). Jack’s Mannequin started 20 years ago as a solo project for Andrew McMahon while taking a break from Something Corporate. Eventually, the lineup of Jay McMillan on drums, Bobby Anderson on guitar, and Mikey Wagner on bass was cemented, and luckily, all band members returned for this monumentous occasion.
The Dear Jack Foundation, which was started by Andrew, shares their mission as follows:
“The Dear Jack Foundation provides impactful programs benefiting adolescents and young adults (AYA) diagnosed with cancer and their families to improve their quality of life from treatment to survivorship.
Our vision is to be a national leader in adolescent and young adult cancer programming, by giving patients, survivors, and their caregivers a community and support rooted in mental and physical wellness-based tools and resources from diagnosis through survivorship.”
$1 of each ticket for the show that night was donated to the Dear Jack Foundation, and members of the organization came to the stage to thank everyone for showing up and contributing to their goal, which they were able to reach for the evening, as well as share some of their personal battles with cancer, and how important it is to have this type of support system. They also gave fans an additional opportunity to donate whatever they were comfortable by scanning a QR code on the screen behind them.
HELLOGOODBYE
A fan favorite from the same era as Jack’s Mannequin, HelloGoodbye has offered us a sugar-sweet synth pop vibe, along with a sense of carefree nostalgia. Forrest Kline has such an exuberant personality that he spent much of the time between songs (and even during songs) making jokes and finding ways to engage with the audience. During “Shimmy Shimmy Quarter Turn,” the fans turned up the energy, jumping up and down while screaming every word. Kline made sure to let everyone know that they would be back touring on their own 20th anniversary album, ‘Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!’ which turns 20 in 2026.
JACK’S MANNEQUIN
Jack’s Mannequin took the stage with a gorgeous lighting rig and visuals, but most of us are so stuck on the lyrics, we may not have taken it all in. McMahon has said in the past in interviews, but most recently in a chat with ‘Rolling Stone‘, that much of Jack’s Mannequin is his lyrics and thoughts, and how vulnerable that can be, given that much of this music came after he found out he was sick. He said:
“I’ll be honest, I’m anxious about it. My therapist will be on call for this round. With Jack’s Mannequin it was so story-driven. Since it was mine exclusively from a writing standpoint, it became this vehicle to really latch my journey to my writing and be able to author those things through these three records. I never expected that Jack’s was going to be a three-record project, I think we just got so caught in the swirl of everything that was happening around the project.”
While people run on adrenaline a lot of the time on stage, if Andrew was feeling some type of way, it didn’t show. He was smiling, jumping off his piano, and even flung himself across the photo pit onto the barricade next to me while performing. The rest of the band provided the intricacies in their technical performances to make the full package worth way more than the price of admission.
The band trekked across their 20-song setlist, performing fan favorites across their catalog. Some of our personal favorites were “Holiday From Real,” “Amy I,” “I’m Ready,” and “Bruised.” Closing out the set, Andrew played the Something Corporate card, tacking on “Konstantine,” which was sure to send everyone in attendance into complete shambles. Speaking from experience, it’s hard to not ugly cry when that song hits.
It will be interesting to see what is in store for Jack’s Mannequin if they continue to tour and have time to potentially make new music. Time will tell, but what I do know is whether it’s Jack’s Mannequin, Something Corporate, or Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, Detroit will be there with bells on.