Monday, November 25, 2002
New Book:
I just read about Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer by Trevor J. Pinch & Frank Trocco, a history of the synthesizer that is getting great reviews, said to be accessible and interesting.
Monday, November 18, 2002
Saw Aimee Mann at the Riviera in Chicago last weekend. This was my second time seeing her. I think she's amazing.
Kevin Thista's Red Terror opened, a quiet singer/songwriter in the Mann/Penn vein. Unfortunately, he failed to take command of the huge theater, and people talked through his set. His music was quite nice and pleasant. His lyrics were uneven, but his voice was excellent.
Aimee was beautiful. Her band seemed bigger than the last time I saw her, and I have to admit I somewhat prefered the last tour (for Bachelor No. 2) because it was more acoustic. This time around her work got the rock treatment, and I felt the louder instrumentation drowned out her subtle, clever, playful lyrics, and also overwhelmed the subtle pop arrangements. We got the word right away that the concert was being taped for broadcast later in Chicago (WXRT), and I think it affected the performance. Mann and her band moved through their set quickly, with little of her humorous patter in between songs (which I'd loved last time). Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed myself. Luckily, for the encores (which were easily over half an hour) the band did scale back, and everything was perfect. The sound was balancd. She loosened up and joked.
Both times I've seen her she tried to tackle a request that she hadn't rehearsed, and though that sounds like a bad thing, it was actually thrilling to watch her struggle for us, fun to laugh with her at her goofs. This time, it was "Invisible Ink," one of the absolute gems of her entire catalog. After a false start or two, she got it under control. Her band gently came in to support her, and they rocked at the climax. It's strange to see a performer struggle with a song she wrote and recorded, but her songs are numerous and musically sophisticated, and bands concentrate on a finite number of songs for a tour so they can polish them. You rarely see bands deviate from their set list--that piece of paper taped to the floor. Both times I've seen her, she's risked making a fool of herself (in her own words) by trying to perform an unrehearsed request. That kind of spontaneity is really exciting live, and it makes the concert experience more intimate. You feel like you're hanging out with a friend. (Of course, on the rehearsed numbers, they were very polished.)
We had a somewhat rowdy crowd, and early on the cries came for "Voices Carry." She joked that the people making the requests didn't really want to hear it, she knew their type, etc. Later, after more cries for the song, she said, "OK, OK, I'm going to PLAY Voices Carry, and you're going to like it!" She did. We did. (Cheers that went up as she broke into the first recognizable strains.) The song was utterly transformed from the 80s radio version--slower, mellowed out to fit into her current context, and that awkward "He said SHUT UP!" bit was dropped. Feeling silly after this, someone cried out Freebird! She said ok, this would be the night if we requested Freebird, she'd play it, and next thing you know, "If I leave here tomorrow...." Didn't get much farther than that before she ended up laughing and breaking it off, finally getting the requesters to pipe down.
I went in wanting more from the new album Lost in Space (which she jokingly referred to as "my most cheerful album yet"). She opened with The Moth, which was my first favorite song off the album, but then it quickly became clear the concert would cover her whole solo career. She performed (as far as I remember): 6 off Lost in Space (The Moth, Humpty Dumpty, This Is How it Goes, Pavlov's Bell, Invisible Ink, It's Not), 5 off I'm with Stupid (Longshot, Amateur, Choice in the Matter, Sugarcoated, That's Just What You Are), 6 off Bachelor No. 2/Magnolia (Calling it Quits, Red Vines, Susan, Wise Up, Save Me, Deathly), and 1 off Whatever (4th of July). I was disappointed that she didn't do "Lost in Space" and "Guys Like Me," two new songs that are among my all-time favorites, but how can I complain? She gave us such a wonderful, generous concert.
Monday, November 11, 2002
Music book alert:
The Cartoon Music Book / ed. Daniel Goldmark & Yuval Taylor
A collection of essays, interviews about cartoon music (think Carl Stalling and Leopold Stokowski). I read that Leonard Maltin has a piece here, which doesn't excite me, but otherwise it sounds interesting.
