Aimee Mann - Infinity Hall, Norfolk, CT, 1-30-2012

I'm a big fan of singer-songwriter Aimee Mann, and I plan to post some more albums of her music. But one thing I hadn't been planning on posting were any full concerts from her. That's because although there are many bootlegs of her shows, I don't know of any really stellar sounding ones, the kind that usually come from soundboard or fm sources. 

But I recently stumbled across this concert on YouTube. It's a professionally filmed show (I don't know what for exactly), and as a result the sound quality is significantly better than any of those bootlegs I know of. The only thing that compares in terms of sound quality is her sole live album, "Live at St. Ann's Warehouse." But that's from 2004 and this is from 2012, so the shows are significantly different.

The one flaw with the recording was that the lead vocals were too low. So I applied my usual trick, using the X-Minus audio editing program to increase only the volume of the vocals. I did this with all the songs (though some more than others), so I don't think it's necessary to add "[Edit]" to all the titles.

This concert is a bit odd in that concerts are usually meant to promote albums, but at the time of this concert it had been three years since her last album, "@#%&x! Smilers." Her next one, "Charmer," would be released later in 2012, but about eight months later. Looking at setlist.fm, it seems she only did a handful of shows in January 2012, including this one, then was off the road until after the release of her next album. Still, she played four songs from "Charmer:" "Soon Enough," "Labrador," "Slip and Roll," and "Gumby."

One downside to this concert is that it's relatively short, at only 54 minutes long. Like most performers, she typically plays for roughly an hour and a half. Maybe that's due the format of whatever this short was filmed for? But in any case, it seems like the whole show is here, since she's introduced at the start and says goodbye at the end.

Mann played this concert with a small band consisting of bass, lead guitar, and keyboards. One problem I have with many of her albums is that she tends to get stuck in a mid-tempo rut, making the songs sound too similar to each other. Here, the songs are more lively and I think they're better for it.

01 talk (Aimee Mann)
02 High on Sunday (Aimee Mann)
03 talk (Aimee Mann)
04 You Could Make a Killing (Aimee Mann)
05 Looking for Nothing (Aimee Mann)
06 talk (Aimee Mann)
07 Going through the Motions (Aimee Mann)
08 Freeway (Aimee Mann)
09 talk (Aimee Mann)
10 Gumby (Aimee Mann)
11 talk (Aimee Mann)
12 Labrador (Aimee Mann)
13 Slip and Roll (Aimee Mann)
14 talk (Aimee Mann)
15 Good Enough (Aimee Mann)
16 Save Me (Aimee Mann)
17 Wise Up (Aimee Mann)
18 talk (Aimee Mann)
19 Red Vines (Aimee Mann)
20 Deathly (Aimee Mann)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15601791/AimeMn_2012a_InfintyHallNorfolkCT__1-30-2012_atse.zip.html

The cover is a screenshot taken from the YouTube video of this exact concert.