Before I get into this review, I'll admit straight out that I'm not an unbiased reviewer. Aimee Mann is one of my favourite artists, owing both to the fact that her melancholy songs are right up my alley (even though I'm a pretty happy guy, I'm drawn to sad music) and the fact that she's always been the first act on my iPod, so when I'm feeling indecisive about what to listen to, I simply press play, "How Am I Different?" starts from Bachelor No. 2, and I'm good.

She's probably been near the top of the list (that I'm surprised I haven't actually written down) of artists I wanted to see live, so I was pretty excited to learn that she was coming to play the Folkfest, and even more excited to learn that I got to go for free on behalf of Blogcritics Magazine. Yay for the Internets!

With all that said, festivals are never the best way to experience a musician, particularly for the first time. At best, it can offer a sample of what they're like live. The acoustics aren't as good as indoors, bands only get to play partial sets as they have to share the stage with other acts, and the audience isn't all there to hear every act. I find Folkfest is particularly bad for the final problem. The acoustics are actually pretty good there, so the bands sound great. But the audience is largely made up of people who are there to be at Folkfest more than they are there for particular acts. The granola types buy four-day passes to take in the atmosphere, discover some music, and hang out. Which is a great thing for music in general, but kinda sucky when you're like me and go to hear specific acts.

Audience plays a big part in the success of a concert. It's why we pay to hear live music in the company of others. A cheering, rapt audience not only fuels the performers, but also becomes a self-sustaining entity that feeds itself. The best concerts I've been to had audiences that were completely into the music without being aggressive assholes. We clap along, sing along, cheer, and hang off every song. The worst concerts I've been to either featured stupid kids wanting to mosh to indie rock (largely indifferent to the actual music), or passive audiences unfamiliar with the acts I'm there to see.

And this is how it is at Folkfest, especially in an instance like this, where Aimee Mann wasn't the evening's headliner (that honour went to Canadian rocker Sam Roberts, who followed Mann). What makes it worse than a typical festival audience is that the people who are indifferent at worst, passive at best, get the best seats. They get there when the doors open, and set up their tarps and chairs in the area reserved for seating. The more passionate and invested fans are pushed off the standing room section at the sides. I understand that the festival as a whole probably works better this way, and it's those people who come all weekend year after year that make the festival a success (and thus the sort of festival that will bring an artist like Aimee Mann to Calgary), but from the perspective of a guy who came to see Mann (and the earlier act The Weakerthans, another favourite band of mine), it's always a bit disappointing when dealing with a largely lifeless audience that I have to look past to see the stage.