Aimee Mann just might be my favourite artist currently going around (Radiohead, as ever, I place in a different - though not necessarily higher - category) and this was her first ever Australian tour, and so I was pretty excited about the show, an excitement that was only slightly diminished by the news that she was only touring with a pair of keyboardists rather than with a full band.
Anyway, I was always going to enjoy it, and I did - she drew from nearly her entire solo discography (I don't remember anything from Whatever), although with a bit of an emphasis on I'm With Stupid, Lost in Space and the Magnolia soundtrack, including enough songs from my 'personal canon' of Aimee Mann numbers to provide distinct highlights (she's never really had 'hits' as such, such as could comprise a more official canon, but I suppose the nearest would be the big Magnolia trio of "Deathly", "Save Me" and "Wise Up", all of which she played and all three of which would be in my personal list, too), but then I've listened to all of her albums so many times that every song she played (barring a b-side and a duet with Ben Lee) were intimately familiar to me. Mann herself was in good voice, and very likeable besides; the instrumentation did feel slightly bare, but it at least put a different complexion on a set of songs that, as I mentioned just before, I knew very well. It wasn't in any way revelatory, but I enjoyed the concert very much.
(Support act was Ben Lee, about whom, as ever, the less said, the better. "Cigarettes Will Kill You" was charming when it came out, but his entire career since then has just been an exercise in the utter lack of charm. I don't know what it is - he just annoys me.)
(w/ M and Wei)
