Ahead of St. Pete Halloween show, Andrew McMahon reveals the best gig he ever saw

Andrew McMahon plays BayCare Sound in Clearwater, Florida on Dec. 7, 2024. Credit: Photo by Caitlin Carter

Millennials can pretend to be young again at this show where Andrew McMahon (Something Corporate) brings his Jack’s Mannequin piano-pop project to First Block.

Over the summer, the group celebrated the 20th anniversary of its Everything In Transit album (and McMahon’s acute lymphocytic leukemia diagnosis), so expect them to be in high spirits for this one, where Hellogoodbye (a favorite from the heyday of Drive-Thru records) opens.

Before the show, McMahon told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay about the best gig he ever saw. Read his full comment below.

The first show I attended was on Billy Joel’s River of Dreams tour in Cleveland, Ohio in the mid 90’s.

I was eleven years old in all my awkward seventh grade glory. A few years prior, I had started playing piano and writing songs, and Billy had become my hero. My sister and I piled into my parent’s car and drove from our home in suburban Columbus in the middle of a pretty bad snow storm. This was a big deal for all of us. My fandom had turned into a family affair. … It was a total dream come true. My parents got us tickets on the floor and I still get chills thinking about the lights going down and hearing the PA come to life as Billy made his way to the stage. I had studied for the show, I knew every word and sang loudly, standing on my chair to compensate for a growth spurt that wouldn’t come for another few years.

Billy and his band were better than I could have imagined. He was a true showman, climbing on top of the piano, telling stories in a way that the arena felt like a living room at times. There are events in all of our lives that take root and help to fix your trajectory and this show was one of those moments for me. I knew I wanted to write music for a living, but watching Billy bring his songs to life that night made me certain I wanted to be a performer.

The next time I saw Billy I was 19, and my first band, Something Corporate, was touring professionally. I had to laugh as I watched him that night more than 8 years later, realizing just how much of that first show had lived in my muscle memory and influenced the way I carried myself on a stage. Years later, I would have the pleasure of opening for Billy multiple times in baseball and football stadiums. By then I’d found a few moves of my own, but so much of what I have become was born of his influence and of that first show specifically.

As an artist, your early heroes are baked so completely into the form you eventually assume, and I count myself lucky that I found my way to Billy Joel in that stage of my life. The wildest dream I had back then was that I might one day share a stage with Billy and having that dream come true is, by far, the highlight of my twenty-five years playing music professionally.

-Andrew McMahon, Jack’s Mannequin

Tickets to see Jack’s Mannequin play Jannus Live on Friday, Oct. 31 are still available and cost $55.95.