Aimee Mann & Michael Penn - Joe's Pub, New York City, 2-19-2000

In 1993, singer-songwriter Aimee Mann began dating singer-songwriter Michael Penn. They married in 1997, and have remained married ever since (as I write this in 2023). Both of them have had one big hit - "Voices Carry" in 1985 when Mann was the lead singer of 'Til Tuesday, and "No Myth" for Penn in 1989 - but they're better known for their critically acclaimed albums. Despite being married, they generally have kept their musical careers separate. But they did collaborate more around the year 2000, doing a few songs for various artists compilations, as well as going on tour together.

That brings us to this album. Their joint tour was called "Acoustic Vaudeville," and was an usual one in a couple of respects. First, Mann and Penn didn't just take turns performing sets or even take turns on a song by song basis. They stayed on stage together the whole time and sang backing vocals and played instruments on the other's songs. But also, stranger still, they didn't speak much between songs, and hired comedians to do most of the talking instead. They got many great comedians to act as emcee for various concerts on the tour, such as Patton Oswald, David Cross, and Paul F. Tompkins. For this concert, they had two comedians, Janeane Garafalo and Andy Kindler. The result is an interesting mix of serious and often sad songs with funny interludes. For instance, there's a running joke that Penn can't speak English, so instead he speaks a made-up language and Kindler "translates" what he said.

Unfortunately, the sound quality of this concert is good, but not great. It was recently posted at a file-sharing site and claimed to be a soundboard bootleg. Unfortunately it's not, and no shows from this tour are. But it's the best audience bootleg from the tour that I've come across. Furthermore, I used the audio editing program X-Minus to improve every single track, even the talking ones. Generally speaking, I boosted the vocals, improved the mix, and also remove extraneous "woo-hoo" and clapping sounds during songs. It still has some issues, but it's markedly better than before, and is very listenable.

It's too bad Mann and Penn haven't toured together in all years since this. Since they're still married, maybe they'll get around to it again. I also really like the idea of comedians as emcees. This tour is the only example of that I know of, but I hope others will take up the idea. In the meantime, enjoy this one.

This concert is an hour and 55 minutes long.

01 talk (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
02 Fourth of July (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
03 Long Way Down [Look What the Cat Drug In] (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
04 Red Vines (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
05 talk (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
06 You Could Make a Killing (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
07 Choice in the Matter (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
08 talk (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
09 Out of My Hands (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
10 talk (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
11 Bunker Hill (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
12 talk (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
13 Me Around (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
14 talk (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
15 Save Me (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
16 talk (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
17 The Fall of the World's Own Optimist (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
18 That's Just What You Are (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
19 Long Shot (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
20 talk (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
21 Wise Up (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
22 talk (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
23 Try (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
24 talk (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
25 High Time (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
26 talk (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
27 Whole Truth (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
28 Perfect Candidate (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
29 talk (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
30 Brave New World (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
31 talk (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
32 I Got You Babe (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
33 talk (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
34 The Other End [Of the Telescope] (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
35 talk (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
36 Bucket Brigade (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
37 No Myth (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
38 talk (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
39 Voices Carry (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)

https://www.imagenetz.de/agfY8

The cover photo is of Mann and Penn performing on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno in January 2002. They were standing further apart, but I used Photoshop to bring them closer together.