I’m as big an Aimee Mann fanboy as anyone, and the room was full of them. We got a master class on June 15 at the 9:30 Club in D.C.
She delights in being the empress of down, and said all her songs are depressing. If that were true, the room would have been empty.
The occasion was to play the entire "Lost in Space" album, one that I did not know particularly well, but others in the crowd did, so they sang along.
Mann’s output has leaned toward folk music and singer/songwriter material in the last decade. But her skill as a songwriter is the uptempo pop/rock gem. Songs like “Pavlov’s Bell,” “The Moth” and “Humpty Dumpty” quickly came back to me.
The packed house mostly was her age (look it up). She told us about arthritis in her fingers, and was particularly concerned about performing in the required vocal range (2.6 octaves, according to Singing Carrots).
Most Mann songs begin at the bottom of her range. Her special talent, matched by very few, is to take the conundrums of regular people and turn them into compelling dramas by the time her songs move from the bridge to the chorus. In that span, her singing moves into the soprano and sometimes mezzo soprano ranges.
She is literally a four-minute dramatist. At the end of a Mann song, I felt I had heard “The Tempest” or “The Cherry Orchard” compressed into a pop number.
There’s no improvisation by Mann or her crack band. Concert-goers know exactly what they will get. The songs are so compelling that I was eager for the next one.
She brought out opening act Jonthan Coulter to play and sing on one song. Coulter is a jovial performer and a fine foil to Mann. His songs are reminiscent of They Might Be Giants.
She likes to close a show with rockers, to my delight, like “I Should Have Known.” I saw her perform “Long Shot” several years ago and it was just as good in 2025. The ballad “Stupid Thing” was a great addition. You may not hear your favorite song at her show, but you’ll get enough.
I left the 9:30 Club in a fitting cold summer rain asking myself how I could write a song as good as one of hers. I promise not to steal one.
