| From www.ocrealoaded.com: Liz Phair Rocks The Troubadour |
| Written by Paul Lyons |
| Thursday, 17 March 2011 21:16 |
 After having dinner at the legendary Dan Tana’s in West Hollywood, Liz Phair walked next door and performed an excellent 80 minute concert at the Troubadour Wednesday night. Like any great concert, Liz Phair’s show went by lightning fast, as if no time had passed. Commanding the stage with her ebullient vocals, her red, white, and wood finish Fender guitars, as well as her 3-piece band, Phair played a healthy mixture of old and new to an adoring crowd who cheered and sang through 19 songs. Approaching the stage with a smile, Phair opened the show strong with the 1994 track “Supernova”, a hard charging, rock and roll love song that lifted the crowd up. Keeping the energy high, she launched into a terrific triple play from Exile In Guyville, “6 ’1,” ‘Help Me Mary” and “Divorce Song.” The sounds of Guyville would dominate the evening...with Liz Phair performing no less than eight songs from her 1993 masterpiece. Switching gears, Phair brought out the sweet and delicate “May Queen”...from 1994’s Whip Smart, before returning to Guyville for the fun and catchy “Never Said. ” If I had one complaint, it would be that I could not hear Liz Phair’s vocals very well. Too often, Phair’s voice would be buried in the mix with the guitars and drums...and I found myself filling in the gaps as to what she was singing. Perhaps the sound was projected out only to those furthest away from the stage, and up to the Troubadour balcony. I stood closer to Liz Phair than anybody else in the entire venue, including her band members (with my head inches from the stage monitors)...yet I still could not hear her sing on most songs. Yet what I did hear sounded really good...such as the song that came next...a beautiful version of “Nashville” (from Whip Smart). For the first time all night, I really got to hear Phair’s vocals shine. Thankfully, there was more to come.. . After years working with major labels, Liz Phair freed herself from the chains 
of corporate nonsense and released last year an independent album
called Funstyle. Proving once again that you don’t need to have a big
record contract in order to make great music...Phair performed two
fantastic songs from her latest release. First up was “And He Slayed
Her”... a lively song with a scornful yet jubilant chorus of ‘Ding Dong,
the witch is dead. Come out of your house, uncover your head. Dang
Dong, this crooked soul. Hanged himself on rock 'n' roll.”Changing course again, Liz Phair followed this up with a faithful version of the 1998 track from whitechocolatespacegg “Polyester Bride.” Then, she called for an audible...a song not listed on the setlist: ”Flower”...the great, dirty nursery rhyme from Exile In Guyville. Phair asked if anyone in the audience could sing, and knew the words to the song...otherwise (it looked like) she wasn’t going to play it. After some foolish men offered to jump on stage, a young girl from the crowd came forward...and was brought on stage to sing back-up. Phair seemed to still have fun singing the 18-year old Guyville song, and was moved by the fact that the young girl singing back-up vocals did such a good job... Noticing the opening band, Cathy’s setlist still stuck to the stage (not far from her left foot), Liz Phair told the crowd that she felt tempted to play one of their songs. Temptation soon turned into action, as Phair choose a random title off of Cathy’s setlist...and briefly made up her own song for it on the spot. The band and the audience had a good laugh... Skipping “Perfect World” on the setlist, Liz Phair and the band went right into ”Mesmerizing”...another great track off of Guyville. Many of Exile In Guyville’s songs were inspired by the classic 1972 Rolling Stones album Exile on Main Street...and you can even hear the Stones’ influence on Liz Phair’s new material as well...such as the great “Oh, Bangladesh”... which was the second track performed off of 2010’s Funstyle album. This particular song is offered as a free download on www.lizphair.com. I strongly urge you to take a listen.  Next up was a strong version of “Extraordinary," the lead track off of Liz Phair, the controversial 2003 self-titled album she made with the hit-making production team known as the Matrix. At the time, critics accused her of “selling out”...yet as usual, the critics ignored the good that came out of that record...such as “Extraordinary”, and the hit song played in the encore: ”Why Can’t I.” I don’t care what anybody says...these songs rock. Throughout the night, Phair displayed a friendly and casual approach on stage, and had good interaction with her band during the performance. Phair told the audience that her band loves 80’s movies. She even had brief chats with her guitarist between songs...and at one point had a fun talk with him about how her shopping habits have changed. Her guitarist brought up the 2009 movie CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC for discussion... Closing the main set was a double-shot of Exile In Guyville classics: “Stratford on Guy” and the brutally honest “Fuck and Run.” After politely excusing herself from the stage...Liz Phair later returned with a 4-song encore that included “Cinco De Mayo” from Whip Smart, as well as brand new song that she had yet to record, or even perform live before: ”Soul Dedication”...a moving, mid-temp tune that will hopefully find its way on to her next album. To finish off the night, Phair brought out her biggest hit...”Why Can’t I,” which sounded terrific...and closed the show with the up-tempo whitechocolatespacegg track ”Johnny Feelgood.” It was sad to see her leave the stage for the night, as you can tell she had so much more to offer. Everyone who was fortunate enough to catch her Troubadour show knew that fact without even thinking about it. Yet Liz Phair is smart, and knows too well one of the greatest old rules of show busness. To steal a quote from Walt Disney ‘“Always leave them wanting more.” Opening the show was an act called “Cathy.” To my surprise, Cathy was not a woman, nor even a group featuring women. No. Instead Cathy is a fine rock and roll band featuring four young men from Brooklyn. With a sound of The Clash meets The Counting Crows, Cathy played 11 original songs with titles like “I Wish I Was Underwater” and “What Do You Want Me To Say”...and closed their set with a cover of the 1980 Alex Chilton song “Hey Little Child.” |
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