The beautiful and lovely Lee Aaron came out and showed us she’s still got it where it counts.  A fitting end to two days of killer female vocalage for me.  The night before, I watched an incredible singer, Lisa Smith and her band Powerhaus, open for the legendary pipes of Headpins’s Darby Mills.  This night I was to be hypnotized by Basia Lyjak’s sonic embrace before taking in lovely Lee and her tight knit backing trio. 

I was somewhat excited to be witnessing Lee’s “Return to Rock” tour which apparently was the first time in years she’d be singing her rock hits.  I found it hard to believe she’d ever tour without bringing out her big hits like “Whatcha Do To My Body”, and “Metal Queen”.  I mean these are the tunes that helped make her who she is today.  Sure she may have outgrown her metal phase which a lot of older folk do, but it always drives me nuts when a performer flat out refuses to play material that many of their fans define them by.  Hell, if I wanted to watch a jazz singer all night, I’d call up the Mayor of Puslinch, a jazz connoisseur, hell of a decent human being and general all around fun guy and ask him to take me on a downtown Toronto jazz tour.  Just for shits n giggles I’m gonna give him a shout and see if he’s ever even heard of Lee Aaron. 

It’s been done time and time again and I think it’s a totally selfish and arrogant move.  I recently saw an interview with Rik Emmett before he got back with Triumph where he was playing solo material in a bar and expressing his displeasure of having some guy yelling out “Play some Triumph man!”  He was literally bummed and couldn’t understand why people insisted on requesting Triumph tunes while on one of his many solo tours.  Well DUH, Rik, what the fuck do you think??  Maybe these people are TRIUMPH fans and they’re coming out to see the voice of Triumph, the only touring member of their favourite band and begging you to play some of the old tunes that they miss hearing live so much.  What’s wrong with that man?  Can you blame them?  I know you want everyone to recognize the material you’re coming out with now but there’s a million bands out there craving for that kind of recognition and they DON’T have a past to fall back on.  So all these people who are coming out on a Tuesday night and paying too much money to get snubbed, might as well stay at home and put on a fuckin CD and save their $100. 

One look at the front row in Rock n Roll Heaven that night shoulda told Lee that her metal stuff is still appreciated and she should be fuckin proud of that fact.  I don’t care if she’s got 2 kids running around in the back yard and she’s only been called “mom” for the last few years, she’s still just the “Metal Queen” in some people’s eyes and THAT is why they dropped the $25 at the door to come out and see her.  If it wasn’t for those old metal tunes, that front row woulda disappeared.  Well, half the front row anyway… I think there were more photographers in the first couple rows than fans!  I counted, including myself, 6 pro photographers in there and then everyone else was holding a point and shoot.  It was kinda comical actually.  But hey, when you look that fuckin good, you’re gonna draw some attention no matter what the hell you do! 

Alright.. I’m being a little harsh here.  Sure a bunch of people were disgusted and actually left halfway through her jazz infused set, but any musician, anyone who truly appreciates a performer putting out on stage, had to admit that Lee Aaron is not only still one of the most beautiful women to ever hit a stage, but she can REALLY sing.  Singing jazz is NOT an easy task and falls on very scrutinizing ears in very quiet venues where people do nothing but sip martinis and watch in silence.  I’m actually glad I’m not a jazz fan cuz if I was to step into a jazz bar and start snapping away, I wouldn’t get 30 seconds of shooting in before I was ejected for making too much noise!  If Lee can actually hold her own in that fucking scene, man, she’s more of a singer than we’ll ever know. 

I’m happy to report that she actually did pull some of her rockin stuff out of the bag and actually picked up a guitar for a few tunes and some cool posing.  I’m not familiar enough with her catalogue to start dropping song titles on you, nor am I gonna pretend to be, but I did recognize a few songs that were definitely big in the early 90s such as the aforementioned “Whatcha Do To My Body”.  So even though the tour was billed as the “Return to Rock”, Lee took a chance and dropped some jazz on us anyway.  Most of her fans hung in there and enjoyed themselves whether they were into the jazz or not.  Hey, who am I to knock someone for teaching a metal head that there actually are other kinds of music out there.  For all I know, the guy in the front row that looked just like Slash went out to HMV the next day and spent his paycheque on the jazz section.  After the show she signed a load of autographs and posed for pics with fans and seemed like a very genuine and super nice person.  So whatever it is she's into, be it rock or jazz, I hope she continues on for a long time creating new jazz fans everywhere she goes.