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SXSW Performance: Aimee Mann
As singer/songwriter Aimee Mann and her backing band finished the first song of their Saturday night (3/19) SXSW performance on the outdoor stage at Stubb's BBQ, an audience member shouted out "We can't hear you!"
Mann good naturedly responded that the situation was caused by one of the annual music festival's few down sides: in order for a new act to take the stage roughly every hour, artists don't get to run through a pre-show soundcheck.
Mann's delicate voice and subdued delivery likely made the soundman's task all the more complicated, but she eventually rose above the seemingly overpowering sound of her backing band; her voice seems better suited, however, for acoustic performances.
Despite the early glitch, Mann was relaxed and in good spirits throughout her set, and offered up some entertaining banter between songs, including a tale of suffering a black eye while practicing her recently undertaken hobby of boxing.
"I realized no one will ask you how you got a black eye [when you're a woman]," she said. "They just look at you like, 'Oh, you poor thing. You should leave him.'"
Mann's set was heavy on well-received material from her forthcoming album, "The Forgotten Arm," due May 3.
