Singer-songwriter and Orange County native Andrew McMahon has a lot to celebrate.
His band, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, just wrapped up the Hello Gone Days co-headlining tour with Dashboard Confessional. Though McMahon officially turned 40 while out on the road on Sept. 3, he returned home to throw a birthday bash with openers The Juliana Theory and hundreds of his closest friends and family at House of Blues Anaheim.
“It seems like the most appropriate place to do it,” McMahon said during an interview backstage at the show on Friday night.
Though it was McMahon’s birthday, he actually had a few surprises for the fans that showed up to the more loosely formatted concert that covered songs from the solo Wilderness project, as well as selections from his earlier rock bands Jack’s Mannequin and Something Corporate.
Midway through his set on Friday night, McMahon played a more mellow, piano-driven version of Something Corporate’s 2002 hit, “Punk Rock Princess.” As the song finished, his Wilderness bandmates exited the stage and four familiar faces joined McMahon. He brought out his original Something Corporate cohorts — bassist Kevin Page, drummer Brian Ireland and guitarists Josh Partington and William Tell — to play “Konstantine,” “Fall,” “Hurricane,” “Straw Dog” and “Woke Up In a Car” off 2002’s “Leaving Through the Window” and “She Paints Me Blue” off of 2003’s “North.” The guys ripped through the songs as if no time had passed and the crowd loudly sang every word.
“This is a trip for me,” McMahon said on stage, getting a little choked up as he talked about the special connection these men shared. “We all went to high school together … we were just kids in Orange County playing music together.”
Something Corporate, which formed in the late ’90s when its members were students at Dana Hills High School, went on indefinite hiatus back in 2004 and McMahon moved on to Jack’s Mannequin. Before the show, McMahon said the last time these guys had been together was in 2016 at a benefit concert for McMahon’s Dear Jack Foundation at the Observatory in Santa Ana, where they played two songs. Before that, they’d done a reunion tour in 2010.
“I’m excited,” McMahon said backstage about reuniting Something Corporate at his birthday gig. “I wouldn’t say I’m nervous, but I feel like in this environment, no matter what happens, I think we’re all good. Even if we train wreck in a middle of a song, we’d probably just laugh and start over.”
It certainly wasn’t a track wreck, but rather a fun and energetic evening of music that aside from the surprise reunion, was filled with other hits like “Fire Escape,” “High Dive,” “Dark Blue” and the ultimate crowd sing-along, “Cecilia And The Satellite.” At one point, during “Island Radio,” he even crowd surfed on a large ducky raft atop the audience and well out into the venue.
Before playing the song “Swim,” McMahon said he knew Orange County was a place that had money and asked the fans that if they could, they should consider donating to his Dear Jack Foundation, which benefits young adult cancer patients, survivors and their families. It’s a cause close to McMahon’s heart since he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 2005 and received a life-saving stem cell transplant, with his sister Katie being his donor.
He wrote about that experience as well as all of his successes, failures and traumas, including addiction within his family, in the book “Three Pianos: A Memoir,” which published last year and will be available in paperback this month.
“It was the ultimate therapy,” he said back in the dressing room. “I’m a therapy guy and that’s saying a lot, but I think there was sort of the extra layer of resolution. I was able to write forgiveness for myself, for other people in my life and for the messiness that is living. There were moments I thought were resolved that once I dug into them, it was like, oh, no, there’s more work to do here and the book gave me the space to do that.”
Though his fans have clearly connected to his lyrical content throughout his career, which had been vaguely hinting at all of the things he revealed in his book, he said he was surprised at how many fans related to his story and said that they were grateful he had fully and honestly shared his experiences.
“I finally just pulled the Band-Aid off all together like, here it is, you’ve got the decoder key now,” he said of revealing the true meaning behind some of his most popular songs.
As his birthday show came to a close, McMahon played a brand new song, “Stars,” which is just a little taste of what’s to come. He said a new album is ready and fans can expect to hear some new singles shortly. In the encore, he covered “The Distance” by Cake and also went out into the audience and back to the soundboard, singing into the faces of his most loyal followers, visibly blissful in the moment.
He played the song “Synesthesia” and dedicated it to his family, who were in the house and had brought him up a cake and led the crowd in singing “Happy Birthday to You,” earlier in the show. He blasted through the song “Crashin’” and told the audience to “just sing, scream and believe in yourself.” He closed the night with Jack’s Mannequin’s “La La Lie.”
Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness
When: Friday, Sept. 9
Where: House of Blues, Anaheim
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