Pop punk legend, warped tour survivor, and garage band kind Andrew McMahon brought his new “In The Wilderness” project to Toronto’s Danforth Music Hall on Sunday night as part of the Journeys presented Wilderness Politics Tour. While the day of the week, and the recent tragedy abroad may have played a part in the lackluster attendance, the venue at best was only 3/5’s full, McMahon wasn’t fazed in the slightest. A hurricane on stage he spent the hour plus set climbing all over his piano, the front row crowd, and doing full laps of the stage.
With songs ranging from early days Something Corporate hits like “Punk Rock Princess” and “Woke Up In A Car” to Jack’s Mannequin tunes such as the recently 10 years old “Dark Blue” McMahon is very capable in giving the crowd exactly what they want. After 15 years on a stage though it’s also becoming clear what he doesn’t have time for anymore, frequent heckles from the crowd wore on his patience and by midway through the show he was threatening audience members to shut up, in addition to breaking up fights in the pit. But there’s no doubt he appreciates his audience, and the way he performs you didn’t doubt it by the time closing number “Synthesia” rolled around.
Co-Headlining the tour was Danish Electro-Rock-Vanilla Ice-Pop Punk band New Politics, where McMahon peddles in sincerity, New Politics were dealing in pure bombast. Lit mostly in shadow by massive backlights the band was a constantly moving force of nature. Singer David Boyd treated audiences to several, extended, displays of breakdancing, which is the best split I’ve ever seen in an audience as the younger fans were enthused, and the older members of the crowds increasingly confused as to what was going on. Additionally, Australia’s The Griswolds played a quick half hour set at the beginning of the night, with barely a quarter of the room full when they started, it felt like their energetic set ended just as it started to get going.
Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness
New Politics
The Griswolds
