Gamble Everything For Love / Amateur

So I've been putting this off because writing about the Aimee Mann concert would be hard to contain properly in words. However, I'm going to put on my "give it a go anyway" hat and see what happens. ^_^


I had to meet Tom's family at the Enmore Theatre at 7.45pm, which gave me around 20 mins to get ready after I got home for work. :D In a mad rush I showered, washed and blow dried my hair, and got dressed! I ran to the station in 6 minutes and made the train with 2 minutes to spare. Mad skills. I was so excited that when I saw Tom I did this 'tarded run and jump thing... good thing he was quick enough to pick me up. :P Sometimes a hug hello isn't enough, you know?

I got the ticket and Anna said that Ben Lee was opening for Aimee. I didn't really know his music but I was curious and excited. After a drink, we sat down and Ben Lee sang this song to open:



Ben Lee - Gamble Everything For Love





It made me smile. It still does. I like listening to it. Check out the location of the video clip. :) Ben Lee played a few songs that I hadn't heard that I liked also. He won me with his audience participation. I lovelove singing and singing legitimately during a concert? LOVE. Normally I'm singing along quietly to songs I like and hoping the people around me aren't too annoyed and can't hear me too much. But Ben Lee had us doing call and response songs, one of them being:



Ben Lee - Song For the Divine Mother of the Universe





Ben Lee was quite a goofy character. Endearingly goofy, though. He was clearly Australian and made a few cheesy references to Kerry Ann Kenley, Bert Newton and Neighbours. But he won me when someone from the crowd called out, "Sing Gamble Everything For Love" and Ben said, "I sung that first Mr Lateypants"! Nice. :) Aww, and instead of having a band to back him, he had his iPod. For serious. :P It made me laugh a lot.


Aimee Man's concert started on a slow note. I wasn't too keen on the bland flavour of the songs. She did warn us she wanted to play some songs she normally doesn't and then proceeded to sing a B-Side track. However, I really got into her music later into the performance. She had two people supporting her, two guys, and they played a wide gamut of instruments - electric keyboards that produce quirky sounds, drums, bass, piano, tamporine/percussion, recorder! In particular, of the guys on piano made my night by the way he jazzed everything up so much on the piano... it was so so good to hear live piano music like that again. I forgot how much I missed just pure awesome on the piano. I have too much guitar music at the moment. lol


So Aimee played a few songs that I really liked. She sang this on her own, about three quarters into the concert and it was haunting and beautiful:



Aimee Mann - Red Vines




When she sang Wise Up, it was perfect. It was one of those moments that clicks and all you can think is "I'm really glad I'm here, could it get better than this?" and you look over and an amazing person is holding your hand and it does. It's something you can't describe, a mixture of gladness and joy... love and music. I also really liked:



Aimee Mann - Amateur





I think half the awesomeness of the night out was that it was with Tom and his family too. I like his family a lot. It's really nice that they're awesome and go to concerts together. I'll just live vicariously through his family. Tom was all, "see what you're getting yourself into?" haha I love it. :)


I hope that post wasn't too painful for you. I'm not really in a concert-review frame of mind. I'm more focused on getting car insurance for my new car and looking for somewhere to move out to that I can afford on the North Shore. When it rains, it pours.

Later gaters,

Cathrine