Phairadise

July 27th, 2005 · No Comments

Liz Phair at the Paradise

Last night, Aimee and I headed to the Paradise for one more show, catching Liz Phair at the beginning of her pre-album acoustic tour. The relationship I have to Phair’s music is one of the more complicated, troubling ones I have to any artist. Her first album is so good, so interesting, and so evocative, and her next two are less so but still meaningful in a nostalgic way, that she has long ranked as one of my favorite artists, someone whose music I can listen to any time.

When I saw her perform and chat at South by Southwest in 2003, doubt about the direction of her work began to creep in. She talked about how great it was so be on Marc Andreessen‘s yacht, how great it was to have money, and how she had Avril Lavigne’s producer working on her forthcoming album. Still, it was good to see her perform live for the first time in five years. When that album came out, though, our worst fears had been realized, and Liz Phair had gone from indie-rock DIY poster-child to bubble-gum teen-pop sell-out.

That said, last night’s show was pretty great. She brought out stripped-down versions of “Stratford-on-Guy,” “6′ 1″,” “Divorce Song, “and “Soap Star Joe,” and sure enough, these older songs got the sustained applause, while her more recent “Extraordinary” and “Why Can’t I?” were received only politely. It became strikingly clear how much better the older songs are, with their angular structure and dense, interesting lyrics. Her new songs are so clich?d, both musically and lyrically, and they just don’t seem to have much heart or power.

The only real problem with the show was Phair’s mostly atrocious vocal and guitar accompanist. Seated on a stool next to her, he managed to play his guitar in the least subtle way possible, and was blessed with a voice not meant for harmony singing, booming and somewhat out-of-tune. Mysteriously, any time he got a solo, he kept trying to turn the song into an Allman Brothers song, which, in itself, is not necessarily a bad thing, but not right for Liz Phair, and not repeatedly.

We spent some time trying to remember all the shows we’d seen at the Paradise, from Badly Drawn Boy nearly five years ago to some great quiet evenings with Josh Rouse and Sondre Lerche, to louder moments with Doves, the Strokes, and the Super Furry Animals, as well as one very memorable evening with Coldplay in 2003. Hopefully we’ll be back again in the future.

Tags: Music