Concert Review: Jack’s Mannequin

By WILL RATH

Pop-punk is a rich business. So, it’s not surprising that faux-emo piano outfit Jack’s Mannequin sold out at the Beaumont Club last Friday.

The first ten rows of standing room were a tight press of text-message-crazy teenage girls and their awkward boyfriends. The back of the club (you know, where the bar is) was mainly populated by bored looking twenty-something-year-old guys kicking cups around with their arms crossed. Add muddled acoustics and really, really (really) obnoxious security personnel to the mix and all of a sudden, you’re at a poorly chaperoned Junior High mixer. On a Friday night. Yes!

Vedera, an alternative-pop band from Blue Springs, Missouri, opened up the show with five or six Cranberries-esque ballads that reeked of 90’s confessional girl rock. I imagine lyrics like I don’t want to deny my heart it’s chance to feel / I don’t want to deny my soul something real coming together in a pink diary, probably written in neon Jelly Pen while thinking about how awesome Jewel used to be before she sold out.