Ashlee Simpson concert review 11/30

[muchlove]

If you've ever seen a child give a reading at a school assembly, perhaps you've seen this expression on her face: eyes rolling upward, a self-conscious smile, a puppyish tongue sticking out. It might mean, "Hope I don't mess up!" or "Dang, I'm nervous!" But the underlying message is the same: "I'm just a kid, so don't judge me too harshly."

During her one-hour concert Sunday night (North Fork Theatre in Westbury, NY - November 27), Ashlee Simpson made this face more than once. In fact, she made it over and over and over, approximately once per song, usually at the end of a particularly loud rock number. At first, it was cute. Halfway through the show, however, its welcome began wearing out. By the 14th and final song, it just seemed like an ingratiating ploy.

Whatever her tongue might be telling us, the 21-year-old Simpson isn't just a kid. She's a grown woman and, ostensibly, a professional entertainer. Yet Simpson seems unwilling or unable to rise to that level. Her two albums, "Autobiography" and the recent release "I Am Me" (both Geffen) have titles that promise an outsize personality, but the songs reveal only a cooler-than-average mall rat with dyed-blond hair and Converse sneakers. It's an easy and safe role to play, and Simpson never breaks character.

Simpson, who launched her career with an MTV reality show, embodies a new kind of fame that's built on extreme averageness. At the North Fork Theatre, Simpson thanked fans for supporting her after last year's flubbed lip-sync on "Saturday Night Live," telling the crowd, "You treated me like a normal person." In other words, not like a musical artist who should be held to a higher standard. Everyone knows Ashlee Simpson isn't special - that's what makes her so special. Got it?

Simpson illuminated this principle throughout her short concert. Instead of carefully choreographing her show to suit each song, she ran around like a kid jumping on her bed and singing into a hairbrush. And like many kids, she imitated moves she probably saw on TV, such as the sexy shoulder-nuzzle on "Coming Back for More" and the burlesque hip-thrust on "La La." Even her between-song chatter was mundane: "I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. We did. We ate a lot of turkey at my grandmother's house."

But it's in her lyrics that Simpson truly finds common ground with the average girl. That is to say, Simpson doesn't seem to understand what she's singing, and her pre-teen fans probably don't either. The lyrics to "La La" describe a child's idea of how adults have sex, with hokey allusions to French maid outfits and "the back of the bus." On "L.O.V.E.," Simpson tries to sound like an old pro at the bar: "Hold off, I need another one/I think you, you do, too."

Simpson closed the show with "(Didn't Steal Your) Boyfriend," a song she delivered with some believability - at least until she stuck her tongue out again.

Copyright © 2005, Newsday, Inc.

[ourmaninBusan]

If you've ever seen a child give a reading at a school assembly, perhaps you've seen this expression on her face: eyes rolling upward, a self-conscious smile, a puppyish tongue sticking out. It might mean, "Hope I don't mess up!" or "Dang, I'm nervous!" But the underlying message is the same: "I'm just a kid...."

...who expects to make am eight-digit salary from this CD, so please
don't blow it for me or I might have to find a job and
work with icky bitches like YOU!...my fans...oh, wait!--

[Lobelia]

Simpson thanked fans for supporting her after last year's flubbed lip-sync on "Saturday Night Live," telling the crowd, "You treated me like a normal person."

She didn't treat that guy in McDonalds like a normal person. She treated him like shit.

Thank you for posting this. I revel in every bad review & every time she falls on her fugly face.

[FierceKiten]

Brings me back to those days when you drag ur Playskool tape player and smother the little mike with the little lungs that you got jus for some attention