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October 2, 2006
Aimee Mann Concert Review
Seeing Aimee Mann perform live is always a treat, but to see her in the intimate setting of the Quick Center at Fairfield University was even better.
The small theater provided a perfect stage Saturday night for Mann and her two backing musicians for a stop on what she described in an earlier interview as a "pretty stripped-down" tour, which is, ostensibly, to promote her latest album, 2005's The Forgotten Arm.
The concert started out very stripped-down as Mann came on stage solo to sing "High on Sunday 51" and she also began the second song, "Goodbye Caroline," alone with her bandmates — Jamie Edwards and Paul Bryan — joining mid-song.
Mann pretty much tore through her 18-song set in a neat and tidy 90 minutes and she also showed herself to be quite funny during her between-song banter with the audience.
While introducing the Academy Award-nominated song "Save Me" from the "Magnolia" soundtrack, she said: "I also know this as the song that lost an Oscar to Phil Collins and his monkey love song," referring to Collins' win for his work on the soundtrack to the animated "Tarzan" movie.
She also talked about her upcoming Christmas album, One More Drifter in the Snow, and said with a grin, "That was fun to make . . . even in the middle of June."
When I spoke to Mann a few weeks back for last week's Preview cover story, she said she hopes to have an album done for a 2007 release, but that she "had better start writing."
Well, apparently she has been writing because she performed two songs — "Columbus Avenue" and "Medicine Wheel" — that are as-yet unrecorded.
One thing surprised me about Saturday night's concert was the lack of "Voices Carry," her signature tune from her days fronting the group Til Tuesday. I guess it shows how far she's come in her solo career that she no longer feels the need to play that oldie and nobody in attendance called out for her to play it.
Mann was as terrific as I figured she would be, but the opening act, David Ford, was an eye-opener.
Thanks to tape loops he created right there on stage, the young British singer-songwriter was a one-man band and chorus and the crowd — with the exception of one loud-mouthed heckler — ate it up. But there was more to Ford than just the trickery of his live performance. If his songs weren't any good, he would have just been a novelty that would have grown old by the second song.
Instead, Ford had the crowd in the palm of his hand and I'm surprised he didn't come out for an encore, as the audience seemed insistent. Maybe there were time constraints, but it would have been a well-deserved honor for him.
Aimee Mann's set list
High on Sunday 51/Goodbye Caroline/You're With Stupid Now/You Could Make a Killing/Columbus Avenue/One/Wise Up/Save Me/Video/Little Bombs/She Really Wants You/4th of July/Medicine Wheel/Nothing is Good Enough/You Do/Today's the Day
Encore: Lost in Space/Deathly
Posted by Sean on October 2, 2006 8:31 PM
