Sad songs, cold-filtered four times - Aimee Mann for The Craft @ the Park West - 10/23

I love the bass lines in some of Aimee Mann's songs, especially on The Forgotten Arm. Sometimes when I'm sitting at my desk, and one of them comes onto my little ipod, I'll find myself drifting off, listening to that one line, dipping and grooving its way into the song.

Although I've never listened to WXRT, I'm on their mailing list, specifically for things like this. I've been a fan of Aimee Mann since Magnolia caught me by surprise in 1999, and although Lost in Space took a while to grow on me, The Forgotten Arm had me pretty quickly. But somehow, I've never managed to catch her live, so I was overjoyed to get to attend this taping of Aimee for The Craft, a project of the the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, sponsored by some beer company.

(Here's a link to where you will eventually be able to view clips from last night's show: http://www.mgd.com/craft/home.do)

We sat at a table right down on the floor, and the camera was swinging over our heads all night, so I imagine they got some pretty good shots. She opened with "Little Bombs" a favorite of mine, followed by a new song "Little Tornado" I noticed a contrast right away in how she played the two. She looked a little bored and hurried for the first song, and although it sounded great, I missed the feelings that I get from the recording of that song. The new song though, wow. It was amazing to watch her really lost and focused on how it sounded, because she knew we were hearing it for the first time.

And she actually talked a little about that. See, this wasn't an ordinary concert. In between pieces, she would sit and chat with Warren Zanes about her writing, performing, creation and collaboration, and even boxing.

I won't go into the details, because you'll be able to see them yourself on the Web, but I liked a lot of the things she had to say about: writing music for films, see your music in films, playing new songs vs old songs, why she likes playing with dudes, who she goes to first when she writes a new song.

She didn't really make it sound easy either. In fact, she talked about deliberately going to music school because she didn't have any talent, but she want to learn some skills. She said that music seemed like magic to her - and this has always been a sort of assumption of mine too - that if I haven't figure out how to write songs or play bass by now, I never will, because I don't have that magic. But maybe I just have to buy a book.

Warren Zanes is pretty good at interviewing these folks - since he's a musician himself, but with Aimee - it was even cooler, because he was able to take her back to 20 years ago in Boston, when they were both struggling in the same scene, even sharing bills.

Speaking of Boston, one of her new songs she preface by saying something to the effect of "this song is about living in boston and - surprise - being depressed." What is it about that city, anyway?

Her new album promises to be a little more lighthearted. Called Smilers, it should be out in March. And although I wasn't fond of how she described the cover art, I liked the story she told about it. It's not a concept album like the last one, so the songs are more independent of each other, and she claims that they're not as dark. I liked what I've heard so far, especially "Little Tornado." and "Freeway."

It was a cool experience, and I'll look forward to re-watching it when the beer people post it online.

And really - I've got to start carrying that notebook. I was trying to formulate my thoughts for this when I was running tonight - but if I had actually been taking note during the show, I might have been able to write this when it was still fresh in my head.

Still learning, I supposed.

As you know, October is coming to a close. As you may have noticed, October has been Rocktober around here, and I'm a little ready for it to close too. I'll be taking in the Decemberists double header on Saturday and Sunday, and I've got a ticket for The Mountain Goats next month. But otherwise, I'm trying hard not to make any plans.

But, if you should happen to come across free tickets to something, I can usually be swayed.