ABC/Randy HolmesAfter spending last summer on the road opening for Weezer and Panic! at the Disco, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness is currently on a headlining tour of his own in support of his new album, Zombies on Broadway -- but he says he picked up a few tips from his former tour mates.
"Both of those bands, they're great showmen for different reasons," McMahon tells ABC Radio. "They both had insane productions for completely different reasons."
For his own tour, McMahon is playing material from Zombies on Broadway and his debut Wilderness album, plus songs from his older bands for what he calls "the diehards." As for production, there's a lot of audience interaction.
"I love interacting with the crowd," he says. "We bring out these gym class parachutes and put them out over the top of the audience, and I'll go dance in the crowd with them. We have our wacky waving inflatable arm guys that come on stage with us. There's a lot of gags to sort of take you into another place."
Most of all, McMahon hopes that whatever place his shows take you to, it will take you away from whatever's bothering you that day.
He explains, "I've realized, especially in this era where we're so inundated with garbage all the time, that if we can somehow force people out of that zone where that's what they're thinking about, and have them just think about being in the moment with all these people experiencing something together, that's what we're here to do."
The Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness tour continues tonight in Omaha, Nebraska.
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