Happy @#%&*! Holidays

Posted on December 8, 2008 
Filed Under Music, Nightlife, North Beach

Last night I had the pleasure of attending Aimee Mann’s 3rd Annual Christmas Show at Bimbo’s. Part rock concert, part variety show, the event always seems less like a promotional vehicle and more like a chance for Mann to ham it up with her band and a random group of friends—famous and otherwise. Considering Mann’s previous record with labels and agents, even something as commercial as a Christmas concert feels genuine with her at the helm (part of last night’s routine featured her angst over whether or not she’d sold out by shilling for a yogurt company).

Leading the troupe as emcee was the cantankerous and ever-hilarious Patton Oswalt, who offered an impeccable send-up of how improbable today’s world would seem to someone from way back when … in 1998. Other notable mentions included Grant-Lee Phillips disguised as various characters, including a hirsute Willie Nelson granting a depressed woman’s wish for him to vocalize Mann’s 80s anthem, “Voices Carry”; Nellie McKay, all sunshine and lollipops in a lemon-yellow frock à la Loretta Lynn, confirming her status as Satan’s favorite anti-folk songstress; and last but never least, the wiggity Hanukkah Fairy (a frizzed and frazzled Morgan Murphy), returning for round three whilst apparently drinking “Two Buck Chuck” for two, in a tutu no less.

While I wouldn’t say it was Mann’s best effort (I’ve gone all three years and maintain that her first show felt the freshest), I didn’t walk away disappointed. For one thing, Mann included a handful of songs from her latest album, @#%&*! Smilers, which just coming off her European tour sounded nothing short of fabulous. As for the rest of the evening—a sold-out show replete with F-bombs, heavy booze, and an air of inanity tinged with imperfection—Mann and her wacky entourage felt like family indeed, even for a @#%&*! Scrooge like me.

—Kay

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