Kemba Live! welcomingly sounded like the early-to-mid-2000s on Wednesday, Nov. 5 in Columbus, Ohio as alternative piano-rock band Jack’s Mannequin and emo-pop trio hellogoodbye came together for The MFEO (Made For Each Other) Tour.
Jack’s Mannequin—led by pop-punk Something Corporate frontman Andrew McMahon (also familiar to many as Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness)—went on hiatus late 2012, reunited briefly in 2015 for a 10-date Everything In Transit 10-Year Anniversary Tour, and reunited again last year into 2025 to regroup for their current 20 years as a band anniversary tour.
Comprised of 22-dates, the tour has been praised and well-received, which was made evident at last night’s spectacular sold-out show.
The four-member live band, backed by a notably flashy stage setup, brought all the hits and then some from their popular, acclaimed three album catalogue: Everything In Transit (2005), The Glass Passenger (2008), People And Things (2011).
After a brief montage video highlighting Jack’s Mannequin’s journey, the band entered and McMahon stood on top of his prized old brown grand piano, singing: “This is morning, That's when I spend the most time, Thinking 'bout what I've given up…” from “The Mixtape,” before jumping down.
McMahon was all smiles and full of energy throughout the set, often leaning down and bouncing upwards to stand while singing and playing his Baldwin and keyboard atop, as he turned his head to face the crowd.
The packed crowd matched the momentum and the air was jovial as fans danced and sang aloud in unison to the lengthy 20-song set, which included: “Dark Blue,” “The Resolution,” “Kill The Messenger,” “The Resolution,” “Miss California,” “Swim,” “La La Lie,” “MFEO: Pt. 1, Pt. 2.”
McMahon was light-hearted and humorous. He gave a shout out to Columbus’ suburb Bexley as a place of origin for acquiring his piano skills. He also introduced some songs with personal asides, including “Holiday From Real,” which he explained was the song that really gave Jack’s Mannequin its start.
The show promoted McMahon’s Dear Jack Foundation. Noted at promowestlive.com:
$1 per ticket was donated to the Dear Jack Foundation, founded by McMahon in 2006 following his diagnoses and full recovery from Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL) at the age of 22, through receiving a stem cell transplant from his sister.
The Dear Jack Foundation is a nonprofit which provides impactful programming that directly benefits adolescents and young adults diagnosed with cancer in order to improve quality of life and create positive health outcomes from treatment to survivorship for patients and their families.
Overall, it was a nostalgic performance of upbeat positivity and joyfulness, even through the more lyrically melancholy songs.
Trio hellogoodbye opened the show with a bit of pop, laid back groove and some dancy numbers.
The crowd adored the band’s 90’s cover song autotune medley and everyone cheered when a fan from the crowd joined the band on stage to sing “Baby, It’s Fact.”
Vocalist Forrest Kline mentioned they will return in March for the 20th Anniversary Tour of their album Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!
The MFEO Tour concludes Nov. 23 in California.
Tour Dates
https://andrewmcmahon.com/pages/tour-dates
Dear Jack Foundation
https://www.dearjackfoundation.org
JACK'S MANNEQUIN (click to enlarge)
hellogoodbye (click to enlarge)
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