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Rating: 
Summary: It's Aimee Mann...that's all you need to know.
Review: Personally, she's my favorite songwriter today: bar none. Her songs are up there with the best of Graham Parker and Ian Hunter. And with the music that accompanies those lyrics, it's a killer combination. The music can be deceptively snappy, and then check the words coz she's cutting your throat. Just brilliant! Makes me smile everytime.
I've had the good fortune to see her live twice. Once with this band. You can always quibble about her not playing your favorite song, they can't do 'em all. My only complaint is, they recorded three shows and showed the set list in the booklet. Couldn't we at least get one entire 90 minute show? The show on the DVD only clocks in at 79 minutes...and then the CD is only 58 minutes long. O.K. is it the publishing? She wrote all the songs, that shouldn't be it.
Anyway, get it and enjoy it. The two new songs preview the new album. I wonder how many versions of it I'll have to buy this time around? True fans will know what I mean. Good band. Hope she hangs onto them for a while. Love ya Aimee....
Rating: 
Summary: just ok.Just for hardcore fans.
Review: Aimee Mann is that kind of artist that most of the time get away with good reviews.Her music is fair and harmless.But her pleasant voice doesn't sound so pleasant when she is performing live.Aimee and her band perform like a band in a studio,playing safe and exactly like it was recorded.Aimee admits on the interview that she doesn't like to tour so much;and that's the impression we get.The audience looks like a net full of dead fish.Once in a while they go"Whoo-hoo" to Aimee's uncomfortable small-talk.A harmless dvd...something to "leave in the background "while you're cooking.
Rating:
Summary: mesmerized
Review: An astounding live performence, projecting emotion, and an intensity rarely seen, or felt these days.
Buy it, and enjoy it again, & again.... & again........ & again.
Rating:
Summary: No more from Aimee.
Review: Go back to the studio,please.After the awful "Lost in Space SE" (the live album) and this dvd, I hope she's done.Buy one of her albums.
Rating:
Summary: Sublime!
Review: Honestly, while I love Aimee Mann's music, I am not a fan of concert DVDs and live CDs. Therefore, when I saw this DVD/CD set in the record store, I was conflicted. After much deliberation, my love for Aimee's music trumped my distaste for live recordings, and I bought the set. I am pleased to report that this release is as articulate and pleasing as Aimee's studio recordings.
The DVD isn't some slapped-together recording of a show; it is a beautifully photographed spectacle sure to please even Aimee mann's most discriminating fans. (There were NINE cameras used!) And, in my opinion, seeing Aimee beautifully pick her way through a stunning rendition of "4th of July" is reason enough to own the DVD.
The CD is pretty exciting, too. Note that it is not a CD version of the DVD; the set list is very different. Sure, usual suspects (like "Save Me") appear on both the DVD and the CD, but overall, the listening experience is different but fulfilling nonetheless.
I recommend this set to both hardcore and mild Aimee Mann fans. And the extras (especially the interviews) are pretty cool.
(Note: I had the privilege of seeing Aimee Mann live two years ago and what a show! She packed a large venue in Chicago, and came back onstage for SEVEN encores. She was so floored by the crowd's response to her music that she said she could play all night, which would have pleased us all. As one of her enccores, Aimee even played an eerie version of "Voices Carry" after humorously pleading with the crowd not to make her play what she called "that tired old song." Well, the show was amazing, so if you ever have the opportunity to see Aimee live, do it. Her live show is a singular experience.
Rating:
Summary: just a job...
Review: I'll start off by saying that I am a big fan of Aimee Mann's music and that I was at one of these shows. That said, her live show leaves much to be desired. She was clearly following a formal program and very much playing it safe. That is not to say that the band didn't perform stellar renditions of the material - they did, but they also performed them exactly as they were recorded.
There were attempts at banter with the audience but I felt no connection and based on the reaction of those in the audience around me they shared my sentiments. After a while I begin to get a bit lost and could have sworn she performed the same songs twice. No, this doesn't happen when I listen to the studio records.
Sure, I am a bit biased since I see 30-40 shows a year and have high expectations for a live performance... I want to see an artist taking a few risks and reaching out a bit plus reaching inside. Another reviewer commented that Aimee is not crazy about being on the road and it was very apparent that performing live is just a job for her.
If you are a HUGE fan then perhaps this will be a pleasant "live video" just don't expect a lot of life.
Rating:
Summary: Aimee drives forever
Review: I'm giving it 5 stars because reviewers aren't being fair. It's not Aimee's main job to perform--she's not in theater, she's not a diva. That aside, she hits the right notes every time, she knows the lyrics to the best of her songs, and she's willing to spend months driving across the country with just her band.
The filmmaker of this DVD interviews the 4 members of her band, and from what they say Aimee is a very good-hearted person, and of course, an outstanding songwriter. They lend some insight into the Aimee we don't know: what she's like on tour, how long they've been playing with her, what performing with her is like.
Then, of course, the interview with Aimee. She has a consistent way of responding to the audience and even to the interview: she recludes a little. That's okay, you get to really see how Aimee responds to her craft of songwriting and the idea of her fans.
There are Aimee's classic songs, and her live performances. If you love Magnolia, especially "Wise up" and "Save Me," and the album lost in space, this dvd is a good investment, a great buy.
Rating: 
Summary: my only complaint is that some albums are under represented.
Review: If you've seen aimee mann live you'll want ot get this. if you havent seen her live you'll still want to get this. her songs, in live performance, are a great balance between record quality and having the energy and spontineity that only a live performance can provide. this dvd reflects that. the dvd was recorded over 3 nights, but this is not apparent when watching. it has a continuity that makes it feel like one full concert. the song selection is almost perfect. my only complaint is that her most successful album, her masterpiece bachelor #2 has only 3 of it's songs appear in this concert. it just seems like sucha shame. o well.. cant have everything.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Songwriter
Review: she may not be that famous,but Aimee Mann is one of our greatest American songwriters.her poetry,timing and sense of melody is simple,but unique.if you want to see a great songwriter get up and sing live,buy this.it isn't fancy,but it's real live playing,something that seems to be getting lost now.is there a single reason to buy this set?yes,seeing her sing 4th Of July.
Rating:
Summary: Watch this for three weeks at least
Review: This package is up to date. DVD is the current technology for great pictures and some extraordinary sound choices. On my computer, I don't fool around with the Audio Set-Up menu; I just click play concert and hear it through my tiny polk-audio speakers. I might not be hearing the bass guitar, but this package also has a CD disc with 13 songs that play for 58 minutes, so I might have an opportunity to put the CD in a good stereo system sometime and find out what the music is supposed to sound like. Aimee Mann is the star of this show, and her voice is what I usually listen for, even when she plays bass guitar.
The best music might be "Way Back When," the song selected for the "Behind the Scenes Footage" showing the group on a tour bus or by the Brooklyn Bridge. The words and tune by Aimee Mann sound familiar from the end of her "Whatever" CD in 1993, with a great line "They'll shoot you down like you was Al Capone." The words took 42 lines in the original CD liner notes, so it took a long time to remember where I heard all this before. Al Capone went to prison for tax evasion as I remember it, so I think shooting him down is greatly exaggerated, but with all the mob shows and untouchables on television, it must be easy to imagine him getting whacked. "Whatever" 's version of that song had Randy Brion on trombone and Jon Brion on nine instruments and vocals, too much going on, compared to the rollicking piano part that sustains this version for three minutes of unrelated video shots, and makes it sound more lively than five people trying to play together on stage, though this might have two pianos playing at the end. Scott Joplin probably could have played it by himself, but that was a hundred years ago.
As the band says in the interview feature on the DVD, the set list is great for all Aimee Mann's concerts. I like the choice of "The Moth" and "Calling It Quits" to start the show because the insecurity about what is going to happen during the show is burned by the theme "The moth don't care if the flame is real cause moth and flame got a sweetheart deal." Most people who go to a concert expect to be there for the whole show, unless they want to leave before the parking lot fills up with drunk drivers. Letting people know that Aimee already has a better idea for closing the show than "Calling It Quits" takes some of the pressure off early. "Sugarcoated" is a great selection because I am still trying to figure out the words. The CD notes for "I'm with Stupid" in 1995 had words listed individually in alphabetical order, so I found "write wrong wrote" when I was looking to see if the words were "Whoever has it sugarcoated when they wrote it I would've believed it too." I needed to find lyrics on the internet to know that the second verse has "Until the pencil stops." The song "Long Shot" is also one I hardly know because the words were in alphabetical order. Some of the lines are so familiar, but if I don't hear the whole song often enough, I can't place them. The greatest thing about modern technology is that it makes things so much easier for people who are trying to learn songs; in fact, what point could there be in trying to learn anything else? People who have no interest in learning songs by Aimee Mann are at a terrible disadvantage when it comes to evaluating this DVD because why ? What are they doing here ?
She does not say as much during the concert, except for something funny about boxing, as during the interviews, which are staged in some quiet location but allow viewers to see the band in outfits that are more informal than what they wear onstage during the concert. During the concert, "Wise Up" was called a song from the "Magnolia" soundtrack, but it was originally in the "Jerry Maguire" movie, and the ability of so many of the characters in "Magnolia" to sing along at a critical point in the movie depended on the wisdom of the song's line "So just give up" as a solution to a host of crazy problems. Aimee Mann jokes about not having millions of fans in her interview, but there could be many people who would like to select only one song when they play a DVD, and the first page of song choices has the songs they ought to hear before they make the jump to the second half of the list. "Magnolia" is a huge psychic implosion, which the song "Save Me" summarizes quite well after you watch the video on that DVD many times. "Stupid Thing" forms a perfect transition to everything else because the concept is so versatile.
The song "Guys Like Me" is played during the Slideshow on the DVD extra features, and the words are in the "Lost in Space" CD for those who haven't figured out why Aimee is singing "put your money on the bona fide heavyweight and take it off guys like me."
"Deathly" is a great song for the end of the concert and the end of the CD because its first line "Now that I've met you . . ." is sure to remind people of that line in the movie "Magnolia" and the "No don't pick on me" message that applies to lives going totally bonkers. " 'Cause I'm a goner and you haven't even begun." "Just don't work your stuff . . ." It is a song like fatal truths are true.
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