Andrew McMahon Marks 20 Years of Jack’s Mannequin With Reunion Tour

I still have the ticket stub: May 24, 2005, at the Knitting Factory in New York City. It was the first time I saw Jack’s Mannequin live — just days before frontman Andrew McMahon was hospitalized and ultimately diagnosed with leukemia. None of us knew that show would become part of something so much bigger, or that two decades later, we’d still be singing those songs — only louder.

Now, 20 years later, McMahon, 42, is bringing Jack’s Mannequin back on tour to mark the anniversary of Everything in Transit, the seminal album that defined a moment for so many fans, including me.

"I was just so in the s--t when I was making those records and touring those records,” the songwriter exclusively tells Men's Journal. “It’s nice to have a little bit of distance and be able to celebrate ’em instead.”

Though he’s never been one to dwell on the past — he admits he once resisted reunions entirely — turning 40 gave him a new perspective. “I think I started looking at my history a little bit differently,” he says. “Rather than it being this thing I needed to run from, I was like, wow, there’s a lot of really good work… and a lot of trying times.”

He adds, “I think I left a lot of things undone in both projects. I was such a mess… a lot of it just kind of dissolved rather than properly ended.”

McMahon is bringing that full-circle energy into this tour. Not only will Jack’s Mannequin hit the road with high-production visuals — designed across three screens— but he promises the setlist will balance fan-favorites, B-sides and even songs from People and Things, which he calls “a grounded and beautiful album” that admittedly never got its due.

“Even though some of the Jack’s players have toured with me in other projects, this one feels different,” he says. “There’s a sense of ownership over this material now. And with the big production we’re building, it’s like we’re finally giving these songs the staging they deserve.”

Jack's Mannequin

Lupe Bustos

He’s also revisiting tracks like “Dark Blue,” the breakout hit he wrote last for Transit — a song that, even now, surprises him. “It was just one of those moments. I wrote the bridge in the studio that day,” he recalls. “I’m not saying this from a place of ego… but it was just a perfect song and a perfect recording.”

While the songs feel more celebratory now, they still carry emotional weight. “If I’m really present on stage… something I hadn’t thought about for a while will all of a sudden come to life in my memory,” he says. “It’s the same for the audience. These songs are time travel devices.”

“There’s a sense memory and a trigger wired into these songs,” he adds. “If I’m really present on stage, something I hadn’t thought about in years can just rush back."

Outside his own music, McMahon continues to advocate for fans as one of the biggest voices for calling out scalpers and fighting for fair ticket access through careful pre-sale strategies. “The biggest thing that’s been hard is when you have a diehard fan who’s there on day one, and tickets get robbed by bots,” he tells MJ. “We’ve done a good job getting tickets to real fans. But it’s far from perfect.”

For longtime fans like me — who’ve followed him from Something Corporate to the Wilderness and now back to Jack’s — it feels like a full-circle moment. "It’s like stepping into a time machine,” McMahon says. “And when the show’s right, you feel like you're kind of in this bubble of something magical and rare.”