JACK'S MANNEQUIN DOES DENVER

Monday night, work ends and I jump on the bicycle and peddle to downtown Denver where I enjoy a dinner at a table overlooking Colfax Avenue, watching all the diverse people walk by, as though these oddities were put there to entertain me.  It is unusual to see such a varied collection of people, found no where else in the entire state of Colorado.

A short walk down the street to see Jack's Mannequin perform a show at the Ogden Theater.  They are an American pop rock band formed in 2004, originally hailing from Orange County, California. The band began as a side project of Andrew McMahon, the frontman for Something Corporate, and is composed of guitarist Bobby Anderson, bassist Mikey "The Kid" Wagner, and drummer Jay McMillan.  I liked their debut album, Everything In Transit enough to have bought it sometime after its release in 2005, added to my "must play" list on long road trips. It was a really good show with a very enthusiastic audience, most people being around/under 25 years of age, many women present swooning for Andrew. He was definitely the star of the show, putting his heart into every song they played.

“I love the energy in here,” McMahon acknowledged the crowd as the nearly packed house sang, danced and most of all cut loose during the 90-minute set. As the crowd hung on every note, the band went through a pretty standard set of hit songs from their three records. The crowd was at its best when the band played “The Mix Tape,” “Holiday for Real” and “Dark Blue” off their “Everything in Transit” record. The set provided very few surprises with regard to song selection, but the band kept their energy up as McMahon bounded all over the stage and jumped into the crowd a few times. “Swim” and “Glass Passenger” were the only slow-tempo songs from the set.

Read it all here:
http://www.heyreverb.com/2011/10/25/jacks-mannequin-ogden-theatre/

Out there on parade
Watch all the broken people
My cracks they don't see

Talking to themselves
Muttering as he takes a drag
Voices we can't hear

Cruising on Colfax

All the odd people strutting

He's just a step away

Download it here:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/1wfk4ap0uaw7/MP3%20JM%20Ogden%20Theater%20Denver%20CO%20October%2024%2C%202011.rar

I peddled all the way back to the office where I picked up the sleeping bag I had stashed nearby then rode a short distance where I found a darkened section of Cherry Creek beneath the cottonwood trees with a nice flat spot. I initially had difficulty going to sleep only because of the city noise, but I remembered my ear plugs and that solved the problem. It was a mild night so I was comfortably warm, bordering on hot. I'll probably do it again.