Liz Phair In Greenville, NC 4-26-99
Set list
1. Whitechocolatespaceegg
2. Supernova
3. Polyester Bride
4. Don’t Apologize
5. Uncle Alverez
6. Glory
7. 6’1
8. Neversaid
9. Firewalker
10. Flower
11. Cinco de Mayo
12. Mesmerizing
13. Johnny Feelgood
14. Fuck and Run
15. Chopsticks
16. Perfect World
17. Stratford On Guy
18. Rock n’ Me Baby/All Right Now/ Rock n’ Me Baby
19. Divorce Song
no encore
Before going to the show I chatted someone who works for the student union and I found out a couple interesting things. First off, ticket sales were awful. Only sold 250 tickets up to the day before the show. They gave another hundred away the day of the event. My source also told me that they were gonna lose their shirt because Liz has a guarantee of $15,000 for the show. Liz’s price has really risen. I remember in an interview circa whipsmart or so she was only getting around $2000
David Mead was okay. Not as bad as everyone has said. He sorta looks like Billy Corgan except he has hair like kramer from seinfeld. He also looks like one of the actors from that move, That Thing You Do, but I’m not sure which one. Musically he sounds like the illegitimate child of a union of Jeff Buckley and third eye blind (if you can imagine that.)
Liz and the band come on. Liz looked totally unbelievable. She wore a white halter-top that wrapped around her neck and and showed off her shoulders and back. The thing fit her like a second skin. She also wore a read miniskirt and her platform heels. All in all, she was literally breathtaking (at least she took mine away.) I had great seats. Reserved seating front row center. Right in front of Liz’s mike stand. I was probably twelve feet from her. After the very first song buddy the guitar player sarcastically told every body to move back because they were crushing all the people in the front row. A couple of people came to the foot of the stage and then a few more so I just jumped up out of my seat and went up there too. Reserved seating quickly became general admission. This way made for a much livelier crowd. For the rest of the show I was right next to the stage probably five feet from her at the most. After about the third song she told the crowd she was playing the setlist backwards tonight.
Right after johnny feelgood liz said “the thing about the south is” and some one in the crowd yelled IT SUCKS! Liz said when she played in Richmond VA she was mindful of her songs because all the crowd seemed aghast by her lyrics. She then launched into fuck and run
Liz seemed to like interacting with the crowd. Several times she tossed guitar picks to fans down in the front. She also knelt down and hugged one person and shook hands with others.
After playing chopsticks she told buddy let’s just keep going and they did, never leaving the stage before launching into what is usually their encore material. The next to last song buddy jumped right into a rift and liz gave him a whimsical what the hell ya doing look. After a second it became apparent it was Rock n Me Baby by the steve miller band. She was sorta mumbling the lyrics but kicked it up a notch when it came to the chorus with the crowd singing along. Buddy then riffed into all right now (by free?) liz sang the chorus and they switched back to rock n me baby. Liz said somebody help me with these lyrics and seconds later a female hopped on stage and started singing along with her. She closed out with a rendition of divorce song that brought down the house. All in all a totally awesome show. Of the two new songs I think I like firewalker better. Don’t Apologize rocks too, but firewalker seemed to have more of a personality to it, kinda like uncle alvarez.
Didn’t get a chance to meet Liz after the show but still this is without a doubt the best concert I have ever been to. Hard to believe she ever had stage fright from seeing this show.
If anyone booted this show please contact me. I would give like my first born for boot of this show.
> Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 21:59:17 PDT
We had fifth row end seats, i had a great view until the people went up to the stage, so i was forced to abandon my seat and gyrate standing up.
I think her top was a blue, skintight, braless number. And the skirt wasn't quite mini, that would give a rather interesting view from front and center. Wouldn't it be interestng to be her teenage stepson? Television sitcoms come to mind.
The crowd was sparse, but they were mostly civil, except for a couple of rabid setlist stealers...Shortest concert crowd i'd seen in ages... The new drummer is cool...
Anyone else think there's a weird high pitched quality to her voice when she sings live? Like her voice in the Girlysounds version of Stratford on Guy. "Look...look to your left, passengers." She actually gave that guy a kiss on the cheek. he was ecstatic.
I was one of two asian guys, i was the one in the Tanya Donelly shirt. (The ECU crowd was strangely homogenous...)
> > If anyone booted this show please contact me. I would give like my Yeah, me too. You don't mind me bogarting your firstborn, do you, Rob?
> >From: "robert joyner"
> Subject: 4-26-99 Greenville Review
> > Liz Phair In Greenville, NC 4-26-99
>
Damn, you beat me to the punch. It took my friend, Jennifer and I an hour and 45 minutes to get to Greenville and and hour and a half to get back to Raleigh. Got to see most of David Meade. He wasn't all that bad, the band was technically good, but everytime he played a song, I asked myself "Where have I heard this song before?" And your description is apt, except he surreally reminds me of my rock climbing buddy. And i think he's the freakish seventh son of a coupling between Jeff Buckley and the lead singer of a ska band (explaining the suits). And they seemed incredibly rich. They had some very nice equipment.
> first born for boot of this show.
> > Robert Joyner
>