Aimee Mann had ongoing technical problems during her noontime set on the Green Stage. They weren’t serious enough to spoil the performance, but she was clearly uncomfortable making people wait, and as audience members tend to do during lulls a few fans shouted out her name for no reason except to express their love. This also made Mann uncomfortable, since she didn’t know how to react except to try and make a joke out of it.

Given the bitterness that surfaces in her songs on a regular basis (the titles of her last two albums are “@#%&*! Smilers” and “Charmer,” the latter meant sarcastically) one wonders how she could stand live performance. Unlike another deeply personal singer-songwriter appearing this weekend, Ron Sexsmith, she doesn’t think that love is the ultimate answer or that humans are basically good. Her “thank yous” were sincere but you knew the audience wanted something more from her, and acknowledgment that they were unique. “You’re a fantastic audience” is just so…common.

As a showcase for her music, the set was fairly even-handed, with half a dozen songs from the new album, three from her best album, “I’m With Stupid,” which is now 17 years old, and three from the record that made her more of a household name, the “Magnolia” soundtrack. Her band was able and modest; so much so that I didn’t register much difference in excitement or volume from the last time I saw her, which was during a nominally “acoustic” tour. The thing is, to get Mann you have to cut through the nasal vocals and the pretty melodies and find that bitterness. It was clear from the love in the crowd they wanted to explore it with her, but she wasn’t going to let them in. They’ll have to be satisfied with the songs.