I mean, what kind of kid were you when you were a kid?
You all know I have a thing for lady singers, and if I'm being real with you for a minute, probably Liz Phair is my favorite lady singer ever. Even with the last ten years of hit-and-miss and left turns, I come back to her good songs -- and I don't just mean stuff from Exile or even just stuff from the nineties -- over and over and I find new things I love about them. Just as listening to her half-good records can be a frustrating experience, so could seeing her live, which I did a few times in 2003-2005, when she was putting out those records for Capitol and adhering to a major-label touring schedule. In those days, I didn't care much for her backing band, or how she divided the setlist more or less evenly between Exile in Guyville (great but a touch overrated) and the self-titled album (underrated but not very good). But I hadn't seen her in years, I've been enjoying the good parts of Funstyle, and she's back to playing Bowery Ballroom-sized venues, so Marisa and I went to see her at... Bowery Ballroom! Where I first saw her in 2003.
If this wasn't the absolute best show I've seen her do, it's only because I saw her do an solo-acoustic show and loved it. But this is definitely the best rock-concert incarnation of Liz that I've seen. Her newer backing band sounds a lot tighter and so the songs sound like electrified live versions of her songs, not an okay Liz cover band with the real thing as frontlady. Exile still got the most attention, with eight out of nineteen songs, but we also got to hear three each from Whip-Smart (including "May Queen," one of my favorites and one I don't think I'd heard before) and whitechocolatespaceegg, plus two apiece from the self-titled and Funstyle, plus a Girlysound-era song, "If I Ever Pay You Back," that I know I've heard before but don't have on my computer. Maybe Sara C played it for me or put it on a tape or something at some point?
I'm not sure why she didn't play more from Funstyle, because she seemed to really enjoy singing "And He Slayed Her" and "Oh, Bangladesh," and she sounded great. As much as I think a lot of music press doesn't really get what's great about Phair, I do wonder if she lets that stuff guide her narrative a little too much, or maybe she just has different taste in her material than I do. Just as a lot of reviews talk about Funstyle in terms of the silly (and, admittedly, often terrible) skit-song experiments, Liz seems to be thinking of the record that way, too (minus the terribleness), and chalking it up as mostly unplayable live; why wouldn't she also play "You Should Know Me" or "Satisfied" or "Miss September"? Or, for that matter, why ignore "Table for One" or "Leap of Innocence" just because they're on Somebody's Miracle? "Leap of Innocence" is a pretty great song and could slip onto whitechocolatespaceegg with no trouble at all. Then again, I think I love the latter more than Phair does.
Oh well. Fantasy Liz Phair setlists aside, she played eighteen mostly awesome songs, so no complaints, not even about "Extraordinary," which offhand is probably my least favorite song of hers ever. Her stage presence pinpoints why so many of her fans probably find her more frustrating than I do: I think probably a lot of gals who heard Exile in Guyville at a certain point in their lives would probably like to find that Liz Phair conducts herself like someone from Sleater-Kinney: serious, insightful, kick-ass. Instead, she comes off as dorky, flaky, a little giggly -- kind of a California girl, laughing at her own goofy jokes and lightly slagging on the east coast. But she still kicks ass.
Got any what:
Supernova
6'1
Help Me Mary
Divorce Song
May Queen
Never Said
Nashville
And He Slayed Her
Polyester Bride
Perfect World
Mesmerizing
Oh, Bangladesh
Extraordinary
Stratford-on-Guy
Fuck and Run
---
If I Ever Pay You Back
Soap Star Joe
HWC
Johnny Feelgood
She still looks amazing, by the way. The cover for the physical release of Funstyle (which I intend to get for the second disc of Girlysound stuff -- in fact, which I bought from Borders only to find a manufacturing error gave the package two Funstyle discs and zero Girlysound discs) is super airbrushed-looking, but seeing her in person, I have no idea why, because wow. (Just ask Marisa. She gushes about Liz's looks like she's Natalie Portman.)
I'm considering going again when she plays Music Hall of Williamsburg in January. Although if I see Liz and the Dismemberment Plan in January, my brain may reset back to 2003 and get mad when I can't follow that up with Rilo Kiley, Blur, and being young.
If this wasn't the absolute best show I've seen her do, it's only because I saw her do an solo-acoustic show and loved it. But this is definitely the best rock-concert incarnation of Liz that I've seen. Her newer backing band sounds a lot tighter and so the songs sound like electrified live versions of her songs, not an okay Liz cover band with the real thing as frontlady. Exile still got the most attention, with eight out of nineteen songs, but we also got to hear three each from Whip-Smart (including "May Queen," one of my favorites and one I don't think I'd heard before) and whitechocolatespaceegg, plus two apiece from the self-titled and Funstyle, plus a Girlysound-era song, "If I Ever Pay You Back," that I know I've heard before but don't have on my computer. Maybe Sara C played it for me or put it on a tape or something at some point?
I'm not sure why she didn't play more from Funstyle, because she seemed to really enjoy singing "And He Slayed Her" and "Oh, Bangladesh," and she sounded great. As much as I think a lot of music press doesn't really get what's great about Phair, I do wonder if she lets that stuff guide her narrative a little too much, or maybe she just has different taste in her material than I do. Just as a lot of reviews talk about Funstyle in terms of the silly (and, admittedly, often terrible) skit-song experiments, Liz seems to be thinking of the record that way, too (minus the terribleness), and chalking it up as mostly unplayable live; why wouldn't she also play "You Should Know Me" or "Satisfied" or "Miss September"? Or, for that matter, why ignore "Table for One" or "Leap of Innocence" just because they're on Somebody's Miracle? "Leap of Innocence" is a pretty great song and could slip onto whitechocolatespaceegg with no trouble at all. Then again, I think I love the latter more than Phair does.
Oh well. Fantasy Liz Phair setlists aside, she played eighteen mostly awesome songs, so no complaints, not even about "Extraordinary," which offhand is probably my least favorite song of hers ever. Her stage presence pinpoints why so many of her fans probably find her more frustrating than I do: I think probably a lot of gals who heard Exile in Guyville at a certain point in their lives would probably like to find that Liz Phair conducts herself like someone from Sleater-Kinney: serious, insightful, kick-ass. Instead, she comes off as dorky, flaky, a little giggly -- kind of a California girl, laughing at her own goofy jokes and lightly slagging on the east coast. But she still kicks ass.
Got any what:
Supernova
6'1
Help Me Mary
Divorce Song
May Queen
Never Said
Nashville
And He Slayed Her
Polyester Bride
Perfect World
Mesmerizing
Oh, Bangladesh
Extraordinary
Stratford-on-Guy
Fuck and Run
---
If I Ever Pay You Back
Soap Star Joe
HWC
Johnny Feelgood
She still looks amazing, by the way. The cover for the physical release of Funstyle (which I intend to get for the second disc of Girlysound stuff -- in fact, which I bought from Borders only to find a manufacturing error gave the package two Funstyle discs and zero Girlysound discs) is super airbrushed-looking, but seeing her in person, I have no idea why, because wow. (Just ask Marisa. She gushes about Liz's looks like she's Natalie Portman.)
I'm considering going again when she plays Music Hall of Williamsburg in January. Although if I see Liz and the Dismemberment Plan in January, my brain may reset back to 2003 and get mad when I can't follow that up with Rilo Kiley, Blur, and being young.