Well last night I went to the Indigo2 (the smaller more intimate venue inside the O2 complex at North Greenwich) to see Aimee Mann in concert.
You probably know Aimee Mann from the soundtrack to Magnolia, but shes actually a really prolific artist. Counting the soundtrack and her Christmas album, One More Drifter in the Snow, this will be her eigth studio album, the intriguingly named @#%&*! Smilers
As always there was a support band, an American boy-girl duo called ‘The Submarines‘ who had a soft pop-rock thing going on. Their track ‘1940’ was quite good, and they’ve obviously got a lot of ability, but on the whole I found their material a bit bland – just not my thing I guess…
So it was good that we didn’t have to wait very long for Aimee and her regular backing band, including the amazing Jebin Bruni, to take to the stage. As always (I’ve seen her live three times) it was a perfect night – lots of new material from the new album with a liberal sprinkling of classic tracks. It’s interesting when you go to see an artist thats been around a while and is very confident in their art because seeing them live is an entirely different experience to listening to albums at home. There were lots of liberties taken, even with the older tracks – different rhythms and different instruments taking the melodies – she even risked a very old song and, to the delight of the audience, had a go at it three times before she got all the way through. A real trooper.
My absolutely favourite ‘variation’ of the night is what the band did with probably the best known track from Bachelor No.2, ‘How Am I Different?’, a song about the end of a relationship (Aimee Mann isn’t known for her sunny lyrics!). Instead of the guitar solo that’s at the end on the studio album, the two keyboard players got into a battle, competing with each other to play increasingly complicated and frantic rhythms in a late ’70s style, for what seemed like about ten minutes – Electric Light Orchestra eat your hearts out! It was jaw-droppingly good – I just wish I’d recorded it somehow.
I love Aimee Mann, and if I’ve whet your appetite you really should check her out – the latest album is the best in my opinion – not one throw-away track on the entire thing.