John Hood - Me-Ow: Simpson's NEPA Lovefest

Me-Ow: Simpson's NEPA Lovefest

They lined up for hours upon hours, in the crisp cold and the unkind wind on the unforgiving pavement before the cathedral known as the Scranton Cultural Center. Scores and scores of girls young and younger, wrapped in the warmth of youth and heated by a very first coming.

So many for so long were they, in fact, that the line became a shrine, to a figure who some say represents each and everything a girl wants.
Ashlee Simpson was in town and the girls were gonna get theirs.

Or else.

And get it they got, on time and on target, from one of the most exploding and inexplicable stars in the exploding and inexplicable universe called celebrity.
Like a punk pop pixie with a perma-smile pout, Ashlee bounded onstage to a reception of shrieks and screams. "I Am Me," she declared. And her she was.
In explicate. When it comes to Ashlee, the Me's have it, and the Me's are her. "I Am Me" begets "Love Me For Me" which begets "Catch Me When I Fall" (not "If" mind you) which in turn begets "Pieces of Me." In between there's the insta-hit "L.O.V.E." and the ghostly "Eyes Wide Open" and the Beautifully Christina "Shadow," which is a nice but now almost unnecessary song. For Ashlee emphatically no longer lives in the shade cast by sister Jessica.
Best though was the sultry revamping of "La La," a track already precision designed to move you, now throttled to move you further, farther, slower then faster then fastest. Until delirium merrily settles in. Of course there's a "me" there, but for once the "me" is about a "you."

Better was the reaction of Ashlee and her throng. They luv her, she luvs them, and both seemed genuinely grateful for the mutual luvfest. It was a palpable sensation, kinda sugary sweet and Tiger Beaty, perhaps, but it was nonetheless a sensation.

The girls got it bad for the bad good girl.

And, what, you say, about the boys? Well, in the current Blender cover star story Ashlee takes a gentle poke at the guypals of all her galfans. "If they gave my music a chance," says she, "maybe they'd be dancing in their rooms too."

The few boys in the audience might've concurred. Of course the male of the species is far more reticent than the female, but among those few good near-men, there was witnessed the occasional toe tap, a smile, even a laugh, and, yes, the thrust of that odd two-finger salute that accompanies all of today's concerts. Mostly though the boys were happy to be so close to so many very giddy girls.

That's something.

There's a "Ha" in Simpson's latest hit "Boyfriend" that fully sums up all that is Ashlee. It comes hot on the heels of two "whoas" and just before the sassy raptured chorus. It's not so much a hiccup or a harrumph as it is a "So there. This is how I do it, this is how it's done, and mostly - look, I did it."

My way? Maybe not.

Me way? Definitely.

That's something else.
And to answer the perennial question everyone older than 17 never fails to ask: She does