By the end of Aimee Mann's set at The Town Hall Saturday night, I was convinced I'd stumbled into a Ryan Adams concert by the mistake. The relentless wittiness, the improvised songs, the finely detailed "semi-country rock", the echoes from her displaced Los Angeles friend, all unmistakable and it is like those homeless people with their "Why lie, I need a beer?" signs. The first time its funny, the next time it's schtick.
But Aimee was better this night than Ryan was at Carnegie Hall last year. For one thing, she is pushing a very, very good album Charmer, and for another thing, her band was very very good and, finally, the woman was extremely funny. Most rock stars think they are funny but they aren't, they are easy laughs because people want to ingratiate themselves with you. This isn't true of Aimee, the story of bassist Paul Bryan and Aimee getting pitched to write a musical by Aaron Sorkin was very funny, and very well told, and quintessentially L.A. And while it got wearing after awhile, a little straight talk might have been nice, the thought of opener Ted Leo and Aimee getting hammered in their seats at "The Book Of Mormons" couldn't help but make me smile.
But what of the music?
It was fine. Very fine. I could quibble (er, argue) about the song selection, where was "Ghost World", "Gamma Ray", "The Other End Of The Telescope", "Humpty Dumpty"… ? I could go on and on, and Aimee, whose idea of getting into the music is to skip across the stage during the instrumental breaks can only get so far on charm. But the playing was immaculate, the sound a powerful, moody indie rock, and when heard live? Aimee's songs become like visual puzzles where when you concentrate on them, the random dots merges into a picture, Aimee's songs kept on merging into memorable vocal hooks. And the vocals, she has a nasal voice that comes from the throat with a gorgeous undertow that draws you deep into her tales of sexual woes. Walking onto the stage, Aimee called the reaction Taylor Swiftian, "I've had boyfriends," she said, waiting a beat before adding "Broken up with them too". But it is Swift who is Mannian, nobody since Mann has written so well about love on the rocks. The truth is, there is no real reason why "Labrador" shouldn't sell as well as, say, "State Of Grace".
So a wonderfully consistent set, every song was OK in my books, and if I didn't get "The Fall Of The World's Own Optimist", I did get "That's Just What You Are" so how bad could it be? Plus even with a level of excellence it didn't dip under, and a guitar that she should've shelved and let the keyboard player carry, it had highlights aplenty. A lovely and moving "Save Me", a Beatley (never noticed that before) "It's Not Safe" which ended the night with a form fitting instrumental work out. Her band is so cool, part of the L.A. musical mafia who, one imagines, hang with the Mann and Penn elder statesmen of Laurel Canyon rock, taking visiting dignitaries to Largo and playing in home studios stoned on weed and red wine with Jenny and Jhonny. What I am trying to say is they sounded like friends, they sounded like a band of buddies, and it gave the set an added layer of intimacy.
The cross dressing Aimee, in suit and tie (and glasses) is the real charmer here. I have seen her many times and while the set list was iffy enough to make you wonder (nothing at all off her last album… not even "Freeway"). And speaking of "Charmer", the set and Aimee herself, fell into her epitaph, "they don’t know that secretly charmers feel like they’re frauds". Why was such a fine set not a great one? Because it was a professional hit job, it was too occluded, like all charmers, and all relentlessly witty people (I know this because I am one). it is used to hide and not reveal. A fine set, good set, sparkling and wonderfully played.
Grade: B+