Musician Aimee Mann, who rose to fame in the ’80s with the Boston new wave band ‘Til Tuesday, played for a full house at the Stone Mountain Arts Center in Brownfield on Wednesday night.
But with a solo career that’s been going strong for nearly 20 years, her “Voices Carry” days are long gone.
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She picked up a whole new audience with her work on the soundtrack to the film “Magnolia” in 1999 not to mention a 2003 appearance playing two songs on the TV show “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
Mann’s songwriting and vocals have remained stellar throughout a string of albums, and she and her band brought their A game to Maine.
The show started on a solo note when Mann took the stage wearing black jeans, black boots, black shirt, a black suit jacket, black eyeglasses and a striped neck tie.
“High on Sunday 51” from the 2002 CD “Lost in Space” was the first song of the night and an immediate reminder of Mann’s way with words: “I propped my window up and then/I turned my back to lure you in/To rifle through what I might have been.” The audience response was sincere and enthusiastic.
Then Mann brought out her band. Keys player Jamie Edwards, drummer Sebastian Aymanns and bassist Paul Bryan were sensational. (fun fact, Bryan played with Stone Mountain owner and musician Carol Noonan for years).
Edwards’ playing was lively and vibrant and along with a regular keyboard he had a ’70s-meets-the-21st-century-looking orange synthesizer gadget that supplied some of the night’s songs with an extra layer of awesomeness. The show’s second song “Little Bombs” boasted super-thick bass lines from Bryan.
Overall, Mann played 18 songs. Midway through she tried out some new material and a song with the line “you come out fighting, but you’re so charming, it was disarming” was one of the night’s best. Toward the end she gave us a trio of “Magnolia” soundtrack tunes, the sobering “Save Me,” the chilling “Wise Up” and the Harry Nilsson cover “One.”
The evening closed out with three encores.
First she took an audience suggestion and went with “Invisible Ink.” She needed a few lyrics reminders but it was all in good fun.
The second encore came with a story of how she was asked to play at a Joni Mitchell tribute show at the Hollywood Bowl last summer. She had to restart her song after an initial falter and this was in front of 10,000 people so she was determined to get it right with us. In no uncertain terms, she did just that with Mitchell’s “Free Man in Paris.”
Aimee Mann sent us home with “Deathly” and we left her with a standing ovation.
Staff Writer Aimsel Ponti can be contacted at 791-6455 or at:
aponti@pressherald.com
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