Report from the Fountains of Wayne/Aimee Mann show.

I was on the rail, where I like to be for bands that I love. Adam and Chris from FOW were fun, funny and basically gave me the best 45 minutes I've had in a few months. It was just the two of them (there's usually 4) doing an acoustic show. Adam played a number of songs on the grand piano that was there for Aimee's set, which was just so lovely. These two write some of the best pop songs I've ever heard. Adam is the guy who wrote much of the music for Tom Hank's film, "That Thing You Do", which I love, and he also wrote the song "Pop! Goes My Heart" from that movie I can't remember the name of. Chris is a depressive with a great sense of humor and an ear for a hook. They played a slow, ballad-y version of their one hit, "Stacey's Mom", and also did some great improv stuff with some 70's radio hits - Foreigner, Pink Floyd, Peaches & Herb. Hilarious. I love them. I lurve them. I luff them.

The guy standing next to me talked me in to staying for Aimee - I'm really glad I did. She had so many keyboards! - she had two backup musicians, both keyboardists who also played a few other things. There was a Korg, an actual Fender Rhodes, a Roland, something that might have been a Mellotron, a few synths and a grand piano. I was in keyboard heaven. They did their own set list for the first half of the show, and then took requests for the rest of the night. They played for two hours. They used music and music stands! It was really, really fun and just some beautiful music. I'd seen her before but this was really different. I don't know that many musicians who can throw open their entire catalog for requests and just run with it. Really impressive.

Man, I need to get out more.