The Mighty Magic Pants are back with a new studio album for kids and families, but it didn’t come without a season of grief and despair. The group will debut its new project, My Mom is Batman, on February 11, at The Space, located in the Trade Center on S. 58th Street.
The Mighty Magic Pants, a comic vocal band for kids from Lincoln, began with big dreams. Mike Mennard launched in 2012 with the hope of creating an interactive vocal group that would mix harmonies, multi-voiced poems, and silliness. The group won a Parents Choice Award for its first album, Gotta be the Pants, in 2014.
However, three studio albums later, the group experienced tragedy. Lincoln native Jacob Wright (Pirate Jake) died suddenly in August of 2015. His passing proved devastating to all members (and fans), and especially to Mennard who had performed more that 2,500 shows with Wright.
The group never fully recovered from the loss, rarely making appearances as a group afterward. By the start of 2016, it seemed the group had ended, despite attempting a new recording for more than a year.
In the summer of 2016, Mennard assembled an all-new, smaller group of extremely talented singers. The result is a new line-up, a new show, and now a new album.
The project is superhero-themed and encourages kids (and grown-ups) to discover their superpowers—those talents worth working hard at. The new group includes Mennard, Ben VandeVere from Loveland, Colorado, and recent Union College graduate, along with Charmaine Ang from Zambia, Africa, and a current Union College student.
The album release concert is free and open to the all. It will take place at 6:30 pm on Saturday, February 11, at The Space, located at 5900 S. 58th Street, Suite H.