Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness 11.28.23 College Street Music Hall

Words & Photos by Anthony Abu-Hanna

A hurricane was forming in New Haven as Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness stopped by to serenade a crowd of Punk Rock Princesses. The former front-man of Jack’s Mannequin and Something Corporate charmed the College Street Music Hall with a set full of fan favorites.

Wildermiss and Michigander, who opened their performance by saying “Wow, there’s a lot of you [photographers] tonight”, set the vibe for a Tuesday night with an eclectic indie mix of sad songs, melancholy singalongs, dance party tunes, and more.

McMahon kicked the audience into overdrive starting his show from the middle of the crowd, singing ‘Nobody Tells You When You’re Young’. But, this elder emo of a photographer was flooded with nostalgia right off the bat when Andrew McMahon went into ‘I Woke Up In A Car’. Unmatched by his stage presence behind a piano, McMahon began to, literally, jump off into some tunes from his new album, Tilt At The Wind No More. A quick crowd conversation about how he’d never miss playing in Connecticut, after so many in the audience grew up with him, and his music, led into an upbeat dance party.

Interspersed within all of these upbeat songs, he slowed things down with ‘Little Disaster’ and immediately launched back to 11 with ‘The Mixed Tape’, by Jack’s Mannequin, a song he previously played with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. Eventually McMahon responded to a fan request for a four hour long ‘Konstantine’, which he quickly obliged before ending it saying he needed more water to sing that song for four hours. But we’re supposed to tell you he played it for four hours.

McMahon brought out a guest singer, a girl named Taryn, to sing ‘Bruised’, a Jack’s Mannequin song, in honor of her friend who lost their life to leukemia. She burned the house down with her stage presence and energy, bopping around and getting the crowd going. And suddenly we all became teenagers, raging against our parents, under the ceiling as he took it back to 2005 with Something Corporate’s ‘Hurricane’. The real treat, however, was McMahon crowd surfing on a giant inflatable llama before ending the show with his hit ‘Cecilia & the Satellite’.

Playfully retorting to an audience member who was screaming for the band to play two songs they already played this evening, he insisted on playing the songs he had written on the set list. The encore took us on an adventure with ‘New Friends’, featuring Michigander and Wildermiss in animal costumes throwing marshmallows into the crowd, and saw the audience out with ‘Dark Blue’.

The one piece of advice he left us all with was don’t take your life savings and bet it on a single hand of blackjack.

Coming live from New Haven.

Setlist:

Nobody Tells You When You’re Young

I Woke Up in a Car (Something Corporate)

Stars

Fire Escape

Little Disaster

The Mixed Tape (Jack’s Mannequin)

Paper Rain

She Paints Me Blue (Something Corporate)

Holiday From Real (Jack’s Mannequin)