Aimee Mann's 'Mental Illness'

I've always been very fond of Aimee Mann's vocals and songwriting. She put out a new album 'Mental Illness' in March (the first in five years), went on tour and came to Seattle for a show at Neptune Theater. *SCREAMS IN HAPPINESS* Aimee Mann returns to Seattle in July 18 at Woodland Park Zoo.

The tickets go for USD34 I think. But the system didn't allow us to get tickets earlier for some reason. But we managed to get re-sale tickets on StubHub on the day itself. Those tickets were pegged at a high USD65 for days before, and on the day of the show, it went down, hovering at USD40. We waited some more and bought ours for USD36; very okay lah.

Jonathan Coulton opened the show, and he is SO GOOD. Such good lyrics. He did songs from his newest album 'Solid State'. There's a graphic novel accompaniment to it too. Ha! Aimee Mann graciously came out to join him on bass and vocals for 'Pictures of Cats'.

I haven't properly heard his older stuff. Good to be acquainted with them tonight. He sang a number of them. In fact, he began his performance with 'Shop Vac', a comment on suburban life. 'Ikea' is hilarious. 'I Crush Everything' is a sad little emo song about a giant squid who hates himself. 'Your Brains' is the one song I know, about zombies. Hehehe. Given his old life as a computer software engineer, 'Code Monkey' is so apt.

I've never stood so close to the stage during shows. There were some sort I think Aimee Mann probably did one song from every album. 'Patient Zero', 'Humpty Dumpty', et al. The last time I saw her was in Singapore, 2009. Wheeeeeeee! The night ended with a cover of Fleetwood Mac's 'Go Your Own Way'. Ahhhhh.... my heart!!! SO AWESOME. 😍