Aimee Mann at the Egg
- Yes, she looks in person pretty much the same as she looks in videos — lanky, stunning eyes, and a type of introspective presence. But she could rock out and she even cracked a smile now and then.
- She didn’t even do “Ghost World” or “Red Vines,” which seems hard to imagine, but she had so much good material it didn’t matter. She did do “(The Other End of the) Telescope,” with an audience member singing backup, and although she lost the words to the last verse, I was thrilled to hear her sing it, and surprised that so many other people seemed to want to hear it.
- I had just this week really started to get “Lost In Space,” and her performances really drove it home. Incredible album.
- When calling out for songs people wanted to hear (Aimee and the rest of rock ‘n’ roll, please, let’s cut out this obligatory encore nonsense and go the Ray Charles route: play ’til you’re done, then leave), someone yelled out for “Free Bird.” She said, “There’s always some jackass who says ‘Free Bird.'” She then explained that they didn’t know “Free Bird”, but they did know “Sweet Home Alabama,” and proceeded to launch in to that, with the participation of the original jackass. A light moment, but not a song I ever really need to hear again. The whole time I was thinking of Zevon’s line: “Sweet Home Alabama / Play that dead band’s song / Turn those speakers up full blast / Play it all night long.” Beats the hell out of having to hear “Free Bird.”
- Duncan Sheik opened and did the impossible: he performed songs that I actually forgot as I was listening to them. Much preferable to hateful songs that stick with you, I know, but he was really a non-entity. Many in the audience disagreed, including a block of Duncan Sheik fans who appeared to have bought their seats together. He had a couple of major flubs as well and the stage presence of a bottlecap. I placed him in the top three worst opening acts I’ve seen, including The Brains (for The Kinks, Landmark Theatre, 1980) and The Hooters (for Squeeze, JB Scott’s, maybe 1986?). He did, however, contribute nicely with a dead-on impression of Noel Gallagher, teaming up with Aimee on Oasis’s “Wonderwall.”
- Lots of people were “missing Matlock.” Years ago, I was at some event where some old guy looked at his watch, proclaimed, “Jesus Christ! I’m missing ‘Matlock’!” and raced off for home. Like whatever was on TV was more important than what he was doing in real life. Since then, we’ve said of the people who leave shows early that they’re missing Matlock. This is the first show I can think of where there were a LOT of people MUCH younger than I am who were missing Matlock. (For the record, when we tore out of the Cracker show like a bolt of lightning this summer, it was not because we were missing Matlock, but because we really wanted to get on the road ahead of the drunken crowd. If you’d been there, you would have supported the decision.)
- As if we were actual adults, we stayed up AFTER the show and watched Saturday Night Live. And, it was funny. Or perhaps we were just very tired (witness an earlier assessment of “Dude, Where’s My Car,” for which I’m still apologizing). But it seemed funny for the first time in years.
- “Missing Matlock” would be a great name for a band. So would “Gumdrop Pentagons,” which would take more explaining than I’m up for right now.