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Concert Review:
Aimee Mann and Michael Penn, Somerville Theater

By Michael Zwirn (MALD '01)

There is a vast sense of belated justice accompanying Aimee Mannís recent emergence from the hinterlands of rock and rollís limbo of one hit wonders, label disputes and well-publicized romantic crises. Fifteen years after her Boston-based band ëTil Tuesday reached the consciousness of America with their striking video and single ìVoices Carry,î she is releasing records on her own label, nominated for a Oscar and a Golden Globe for her work on the soundtrack to Magnolia, and happily married to songwriter Michael Penn, brother of actors Sean and Christopher Penn. At their joint show on February 12th in the Somerville Theater in Davis Square, a homecoming celebration of sorts, each had new albums to promote. A recent Rolling Stone article celebrates the two as a Hollywood love story thatís actually working.

The show took a while to get warmed up, but was richly satisfying after an incredibly asinine comedian left the stage. Both Mann and Penn are the kind of songwriters whom fans of the Beatles, Kinks, Elvis Costello or the Byrds say donít exist anymore. They write intricate, involving three- and four-minute pop compositions that draw from the British music hall, the wiry jangle of early-80ís new wave, and the 3/4 rhythms of waltz in equal measure. The earnestness of Pennís voice was countered by Mannís tart soprano, as piercing as cider vinegar. Much of Aimee's set came from 1995ís I'm With Stupid, with somewhat secondary contributions from the new record Bachelor #2 (or the last remains of the dodo) and the Magnolia soundtrack. Michael played on her songs, she on his. My picks for best songs by Mann were the incredible "Wise Up" from the soundtracks to Jerry McGuire and Magnolia, "It's Not Safe," "The Other End of the Telescope" from the last 'Til Tuesday album, and the brand new "Ghost World," which has some of the best high-school- graduation-with-no-future imagery I've heard in a long time. ìSave Me,î another heartbreaking ballad from Magnolia, was introduced wryly as, ìThis is the song that lost to Phil Collins in the Golden Globes,î and then, to sympathetic booing, ìóBut we all love Phil Collins, right?î


 Michael Penn

Penn's material was a bit weighted toward his most recent two albums, 1997ís Resigned and the current MP4 (Days Since a Lost Time Incident), reviewed right now on my site, Kibbutz Music Reviews. His highlights were "Try," a great version of "Bunker Hill" from his second album Free-For-All, "High Time" from MP4, and a half-slapstick version of "Brave New World." He and Aimee performed a brilliant alternating-lead-vocal rendition with Aimee of "No Myth," his breakthrough hit single from 1989. I think he did a bit better winning over the crowd, partly because his choice of songs emphasized a more uptempo sound. Throughout the show, the two alternated songs, vocals and even instruments, in a freewheeling, almost vaudevillian style. Paul Tompkins, the comedian who had so appallingly opened the show, did clever between-song routines, including a very funny take on Pennís internal monologue, which veered toward ruminations on Popcicles and whether heíd left the stove on.

The final encore of the two-hour set was Aimee's rather odd but intriguing version of 'Til Tuesday's "Voices Carry," which may have been more effective if Penn hadn't been singing a David Byrne piece from an old Talking Heads song and miming the part of the boyfriend in the original 'Til Tuesday video. Although the jokey approach fit the overall tone of the show, there was a touching symmetry: here was Penn, her supportive husband, playing the role of the abusive lover from the earliest days of her career.

For information on Michael Penn and Aimee Mann, see their aptly named websites www.michaelpenn.com and www.aimeemann.com.

 

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