The Cruel World festival returned on Saturday (5/17) in Pasadena and brought great performances from The Go-Go’s, Madness, Devo, Alison Moyet and many others. It also saw a reunion that took almost four decades to happen.
“So our name is ‘Til Tuesday,” Aimee Mann said on a gloomy afternoon outside the Rose Bowl on Saturday (5/17) in Pasadena, California.
“We have not played a show together in almost 40 years. This is the first one,” she said as the audience applauded. “And it is delightful. These guys are delightful.”
Original members drummer Michael Hausman, guitarist Robert Holmes, and keyboardist Joey Pesce hadn’t performed with Mann together as one since Pesce left in 1986, just a year after the group’s chart-topping debut LP, Voices Carry.
While Pesce hung around long enough to record their sophomore album, Welcome Home (1986), Holmes left before the release of 1988’s Everything’s Different Now (1988).
Mann and Hausman soldiered on as the original core members of the band through the end of 1992, when they threw in the towel as a group.
Mann, who had spent a brief time in the early ’80s playing bass in a pre-Industrial version of Ministry alongside Al Jourgensen, released two solo albums in the mid-90s: Whatever (1993) and I’m With Stupid (1995). The later featured her beau at the time, Jon Brion, who had toured a little with ’til tuesday.
Even though those records didn’t go crazy on the charts, her songwriting inspired director Paul Thomas Anderson in such a way he said he wrote the film Magnolia (1999) using several of her demos as its muse.
“[Magnolia] was very specifically written to Aimee Mann’s songs. She’s a good friend of mine, she’s a wonderful singer and songwriter. In addition to a lot of great songs that have been released, I was privy to a lot of demo stuff she was working on at the time. So I had those to work off of, “he told Cinephilia Beyond. “I probably owe Aimee a ton of money for the inspiration she was to this movie.”
Mann earned an Oscar nomination for “Save Me” from the film. She has won two Grammy Awards: in 2006 for Best Recording Package for The Forgotten Arm, and in 2018 for Best Folk Album for Mental Illness.
Saturday the group focused entirely on the three studio records ‘Til Tuesday created from ’85-’88.
The only exception was a gentle cover of The Cars’ 1984 hit, “Drive,” which Mann kicked off a dozen of her solo shows with back in 2019.
“‘Til Tuesday is a band from Boston,” Mann explained as a light drizzle fell on the audience and band, “and I used to work at a record store in Boston and I would see Ric Ocasek from The Cars come in all the time, and we loved The Cars. They were our New Wave heroes.”
In 2018 she played a singer in a bar singing he song in an episode of American Crime Story. Her cameo was in “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” (season 2, episode 4). They also put it on the show’s soundtrack.
But the Gen Xers braved the chilly perspiration to hear one song and one song only. The tune some say was written about Jourgenson and some say was about Hausman peaked at #8 on the singles chart, 40 years ago in 1985. It stayed in the charts for 21 weeks.
“This is a song that made us recognizable in airports all across America,” Mann told the crowd. “Weren’t you somebody?”
When Mann went solo, she pretty much kept the ‘Til Tuesday songs in her back pocket, even “Voices Carry.”
In over 300 appearances as a solo artist she only played the hit 63 times. She played 27 other songs more than the one she’s best known for. She’s played that Oscar-nominated track, “Save Me” 301 times.
So what’s next for ‘Til Tuesday? Were the 11 songs they played at the Cruel World fest enough to motivate them to get the band back together and do the nostalgia thing for a little bit?
If they did, would they interject more of Mann’s solo work and some new material?
The only thing guaranteed is Aimee will be on tour next month to celebrate the 22 1/2 year anniversary of her fourth solo album, Lost in Space. Tickets available on Aimee’s website.
Aimee Mann 22 ½ Lost in Space Anniversary Tour
June 5, 2025 – The Park Theater, Cranston, RI
June 6, 2025 – The Wilbur Theatre, Boston, MA
June 7, 2025 – Nashua Center for the Arts, Nashua, NH
June 9, 2025 – Ridgefield Playhouse, Ridgefield, CT
June 10, 2025 – Tree House Brewing Company, South Deerfield, MA
June 12, 2025 – Canoe Place Inn, Hampton Bays, NY
June 13, 2025 – Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
June 14, 2025 – Upper Merion Township Building Park, King of Prussia, PA
June 15, 2025 – 9:30 Club, Washington, DC
June 18, 2025 – The National, Richmond, VA
June 19, 2025 – Jefferson Theater, Charlottesville, VA
June 20, 2025 – Carolina Theatre, Durham, NC
June 21, 2025 – Charleston Music Hall, Charleston, SC
June 22, 2025 – Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA
June 24, 2025 – Bijou Theatre, Knoxville, TN
June 25, 2025 – CMA Theater, Nashville, TN
June 26, 2025 – The Vogue, Indianapolis, IN
June 27, 2025 – Riviera Theatre, Chicago, IL
