Oh, for the Sake of Momentum.
It's a rare instance when an audience knows an artist's songs better than the artist herself, but that's the charm of the Aimee Mann experience, or at least it was on February 2nd when Mann graced her hometown crowd for her lone East Coast appearance before the April release of her new album, Smilers.
This concert — fan favorites and new classics — was the polar opposite of Mann's late December Christmas Show, which relied heavily upon cameos from Nellie McKay, VH1's Paul F. Tompkins ("Best Week Ever"), Ben Lee, and even Ben Stiller.
But this night wasn't about the Reason for the Season, or about Mann's talented friends, it was about an artist rewarding her hometown crowd at The Birchmere a cozy yet spacious venue Mann lovingly refers to as her "home away from home."
Compared to the Christmas Show, Mann was more in her element performing music she's actually written — but not by much. Proclaiming herself an "out-of-sight, out-of-mind" type person, Mann's struggled to recall the words of a few older songs, including "Susan" and "The Fourth of July," but the crowd had her back and bassist Paul Bryan held things together. This likely wouldn't have been a problem if Mann had pre-scripted which oldies she'd be playing. But the audience seemed more than happy to trade participation in the concert for a few lyrical missteps.
The sometimes show-stealer of the night was sick man Jamie Edwards, battling through the flu and lack of familiarity with older material to provide some well-placed embellishments that added a new wrinkle to "How Am I Different," after which Mann and the audience acknowledged his efforts with praise. But what Edwards lacked in terms of knowing his role on certain songs, he made up for with skill and showmanship, and the occasional calculated embellishment.
Paul Bryan, the producer of Smilers, played the base and stabilized the performance by remembering the lyrics Mann didn't and playing his part cleanly throughout. The guy most trusted to do his job right typically doesn't get much credit for a job well done, but any true Mann fan in the audience could discern Bryan's importance to the show on a night when one bandmate didn't know all of his music and the other didn't know all of her words.
Article comments
1 - James Dickson
This piece was picked up in Syndication by Reuters (click my URL, I dare you). Pretty cool!
2 - Aimee
I saw Aimee Mann in London recently and had a very similar experience. She couldn't hear herself singing but proclaimed, "I'm so f*cking drunk" which made everyone laugh. What a performer. Great post.