Andrew McMahon's "Three Pianos" Tour
The Mann Center
5201 Parkside Ave.
Philadelphia
Aug. 8, 2026
I wonder if Andrew McMahon saw Taylor Swift do her Eras tour and thought, “hey I should do this for my fans too,” and that’s how he came up with his “Three Pianos” tour. Like on Eras, McMahon played for over three hours, recalling each of his and his band's musical “eras," going through almost 30 years of his catalog, like Swift did with her now 20-year-old catalog. It was basically the Eras Tour, but for emo kids over thirty. The main difference, besides the music touching on different topics, was that McMahon brought out members of his old bands: Something Corporate, Jack’s Mannequin, and his current band, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, for each of the sets before bringing everyone together for the last collaborative performance in front of the largest headlining crowd they’ve all ever played for.
Andrew McMahon’s “eras” can be summed up by his three bands. The first, called Something Corporate, he started at age 16 in 1998. Then in 2004, after SoCo decided to take a break from being a band, he started writing new music and decided to release it as a solo project. That solo project became a new full band called Jack’s Mannequin, a much more intimate and personal collection of music and lyrics than the punk/pop rock anthems of Something Corporate. In 2014, he pivoted again, forming his current iteration Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness. He entered this new era as a first time dad and debuted his newest sound with the song “Cecilia and the Satellite," named for his baby daughter. That daughter made her stage debut in Philadelphia 12 years later, joining her dad on stage to sing her song for over 10,000 fans.
On a very warm Saturday night in August, Andrew McMahon set out on his “Three Pianos” tour. The three pianos were represented literally on stage, one for each of his band eras. This tour only includes three stops: Philadelphia, Chicago, and Long Beach. After bringing out all three of his bands together on stage for the first time in one show at Red Rocks in Colorado last year, he realized he needed to gather everyone again. So he asked his fans to “come out with us for one last round,” as he stated on Instagram, and by one last round, he meant three. And come out they did, with some fans traveling all the way from Florida for the chance to see McMahon play their favorite songs from the last 27 years.
I didn’t know quite what to expect coming into The Mann Center; I hadn’t been to an Andrew McMahon show in 14 years. Were the songs going to hit the same as they did when I was a teenager and young twenty-something? Was it going to sound different in such a large venue? But as soon as the first note was played, I was transported back to my iPod days and right back into my feels as that young emo kid listening to one of my all-time favorite artists. After hitting the photo pit, I returned to the crowd while one of my favorite songs, "Kill the Messenger," played — and I couldn't help but tear up. It didn’t matter how much time had passed or the size of the crowd; Andrew made the show incredibly personal, nailing the nostalgia everyone was craving. McMahon traveled through the crowd, and on top of them, riding a giant rubber ducky, giving people even outside of the amphitheater's roof a front row seat. Tears were shed, but smiles were pasted on every single face the entire night. I could’ve listened for another hour or two of hits, but being there for these three hours was pure joy injected into my soul.
