Todd is God

Another year, another Aimee Mann gig. 15 months after her last visit to the 02 Indigo, Mann was back to plug her latest album - '@#%&*! Smilers'. Opening with set with 'Stranger into starman' and 'Looking for nothing', tonight's set-list was certainly new album heavy, but the new songs - on the whole sounded as good , if not better in the live environment. Thankfully there was also room in the set for some older numbers such as 'Red Vines', 'Deathly', 'How am I Different', 'Wise Up' For someone who always used to say she didn't really do inbetween songs chit-chat very well, Mann now excels in doing it, and does so with wit and charm - no more so than when she was having some early technical issues and also during her attempts to remember how to play 'Mr Harris' (an audience suggestion) - a track off her debit solo album - 'Whatever'. For me however, it was another song off that album that was my gig hig...

This was the 4th time I have seen Aimee live, and whilst she was great once again, she has never been better than the first two times I saw her (esp the first time in 2000 with husband Michael Penn and comedian Patton Oswalt). Still, let's not look backwards. The gig started off with a nice little set by Jenny Owen Youngs (she remembered to tell us who she was just before she left the stage!). Her debut album is a mostly average singer-songwriter offering; but live she has a humour and a sense of fun that help raise some of the weaker songs above their recorded status. This is not to say she doesn't have a few great tunes: 'Drinking Song'; 'From Here' and 'Fuck I was' are all top draw. Add to this a very entertaining cover of Nelly's 'Hot in Herre' (to the tune of Oasis' Wonderwall) and I think it safe to say she made a number of new fans. She is a star in the making. Aimee was in a fun mood too - even if she wasn't sure whether or n...