Jenn and I went to the Roxy Theater last night to see Liz Phair in concert, with Matt Pont PA opening.
Starting with Matt Pond PA, they were quite good. I liked their music enough to buy the album on the way out the door. Haven’t had a chance to really listen to it yet, though. The way home from the concert last night was filled with that magical ringing of the ears.
As for Liz Phair: Well, let’s start by saying that she’s a hottie. She must have spent ten minutes getting into her jeans before the concert and she knows how to play the guys in the audience. I imagine that she practices the hip-swivel thing she does, and it’s much appreciated. She is very easy on the eyeballs.
The concert was a lot of fun. As I said, she knows how to work the audience and the feeling of the show was congenial. There were starts and stops during the set and for all appearances it seemed that she was making it up as she went. She started one song in a key that the rest of the band objected to, so they stopped and argued about it for a minute before starting over. The band played for about 1.5 hours and then had a four-song encore.
Muscially, it was good, but not great. The instrumentals were excellent, but Ms. Phair needs some vocal exercise. Perhaps she’s feeling under the weather, but her range was at least 25% less than I’ve heard on her albums and she wasn’t very solid during the concert. The first song, which was a solo acoustic song, sounded like she was gargling rocks and I was glad that the quality of her voice picked up during the show. However, there were some songs that she just couldn’t manage, “It’s Sweet” being the worst of the lot.
Overall, it was a good concert; a lot of fun with good music. This is the first show I’ve been to in a while where I wasn’t behind some 6′ 2″ person with big hair, which was nice. Instead I was behind four jail-bait teens who, despite not really getting into the majority of the music, had glorious fun belting out all the songs with really filthy lyrics. Hot White Cum was their favorite, followed closely by Fuck and Run.
Conclusion: Liz Phair is a good show.
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