Aimee Mann at the Commodore Ballroom

Cross-posted to UrbanVancouver.com.

I’ve been an Aimee Mann fan since her first solo album. She’s a witty, arcane songwriter, has a distinctive, haunting voice and plays with a great band. I was excited, then, so see her at the Commodore.

To my surprise, it wasn’t a full house. In fact, I met a friend at the show who said he’d bought his ticket’s today on a 2-for-1 deal. I could hardly believe that, hearing ‘deal’ and ‘Ticketmaster’ in the same sentence. Additionally, to my surprise, the doors opened at 7:00pm. What’s with that? Even the symphony starts at 8:00pm. I expected to line up in the rain when we showed up at 7:30pm, but we walked right in and got quality seats.

The opening act, the Honey Dogs, were decidedly average. Do check out their Web site, though–I like its design, and figure it’s a partially inspired by the work of Frida Kahlo. Ms. Mann and the band opened with “Read Bad News”.

I remarked to myself how the song sounded almost exactly like the album version. Unfortunately, this was a theme to continue throughout the main set. In the case of almost every song, Mann and her band played verbatim to the album version. The cadence, the vocals, the instrumental sections–they were all perfected copies of what you can hear on the CD. As far as I could tell, there wasn’t a single bar of improvisation. In this way, it was a consummately professional show.

Thought it was an enjoyable gig, I was disappointed. If I want to hear the CD, I’ll stay home and sit in my livingroom. The sound is better, and the drinks are cheap. I come to live shows and see bands that I like because I want to be surprised, not reassured. I want to hear them play an obscure cover, or switch a song from 4/4 to 3/4 time, or sing a heavy rock song a capella. The greatest moment of my concert-going life was seeing the Cowboy Junkies for the first time, and listening as they launched into a loose, rocking version of ‘Sweet Jane’–a departure from the whispered cover they made famous. Ah heck, download it and listen to it yourself (MP3, 5.6 MB). The Junkies do this sort of thing with every show–last time I saw them they closed their show with a cover of Springsteen’s “Thunder Road”.

They played songs from through Mann’s career, which was rewarding for her (apparently few) longterm fans. I didn’t hear “Ghostworld”, but she played all of the other favourites.

Aimee and the band loosened up a bit in the encores, with a lovely, quiet version of “Telescope” and “Cigarettes and Red Wine”. They finished the set with a cover, bringing the Honey Dogs back on-stage for a fun, five-guitar version of “Taking Care of Business”. These final three songs nearly redeemed the show for me, but ultimately it was far too rote for my liking.