What is a freshly scrubbed starlet like Mandy Moore doing at Saint Andrew's Hall? The singer-actress comes from a glossy teen pop background, and her live-music experience is limited to performing at radio-sponsored holiday shows and as an opening act for groups such as N'SYNC and Backstreet Boys.
Saint Andrew's, meanwhile, is the historically grungy rock club on Congress Street in downtown Detroit, which hosts shows by up-and-coming rock bands getting their first taste of touring life. Its basement, the Shelter, is home to the storied rap battles that helped put Eminem on the map, and the club was named the most dangerous venue in North America earlier this decade by Spin magazine.
Through what must have been a glitch in the space-time continuum, Moore plays Saint Andrew's on Tuesday. But does she know what she's getting into?
"So, it's like a dirty rock club?" says Moore, on the phone from Los Angeles, where she just finished doing Pilates .
"Cool. I have no problems with that."
As you can see, Mandy Moore is in the midst of a reinvention.
Of the late '90s bubblegum explosion, Moore's contributions to the canon barely register a footnote — "Walk You Home?" "In My Pocket?" Anyone? So to continue making albums, she needed to give herself a top-to-bottom makeover.
She took the first steps with "Coverage," her 2003 covers album that found her remaking tunes by Elton John, Cat Stevens, Carole King and more, proving she had good taste and a knowing sense of pop history.
She continued her journey with June's well-received "Wild Hope," a mature set of coffeehouse rock that explores an earthy, Lilith Fair-like vibe. Moore co-penned each of its 12 tracks.
Now comes her very first "real" tour.
"I never had the music to support the idea of touring before, and now that I do, it just goes hand in hand," says Moore, who's positively chipper on the phone.
Not that Moore didn't have a blast in her early pop days, but she knows her music wasn't built to last: "Of the late '90s pop music, mine is really kind of crappy," she blurts.
But Moore hasn't totally abandoned her past; she's been performing a reworked version of "Candy," her very first single, at recent stops on her tour. (She's also been doing an acoustic rendition of Rihanna's "Umbrella" that has managed to garner a lot of attention.)
Moore's new music reflects her recent life experiences. On "Gardenia," Moore sings, "It's been good getting to know me more."
"That song, to me, is kind of what the entire record is," she says. "It's a summation of what this record has taught me and what I got out of it. As a young woman" — Moore is 23 — "just to be able to step back and go, gosh, I wasn't sure if I could tackle writing this record. But I'm pretty proud of the results, and I'm glad I was able to get all of that out of it."
Moore is perhaps better known for her acting career than her music — along with films like "License to Wed" and "American Dreamz," she appears in "Dedication," opening Friday, and guest stars on Monday's season premiere of "How I Met Your Mother"— but she says her current tour is something of a dream come true.
"We're still working the kinks out, but we're having so much fun," Moore says. "It's kind of what I've always wanted to do, to go on a proper tour. So I'm living it up."
If you go . . .
What: Mandy Moore
Where: Avalon, 3605 S. State Street
When: tonight, 6:30 p.m.
How much: $19
Phone: 467-8499
Web: www.smithstix.com