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WCSE breaks from the tradition of the previous two Liz Phair albums by being 100% ready for radio airplay (only two songs need bleeps). She spent three years getting this right, working with producers Scott Litt early on and Brad Wood at project’s end. This one should make Phair more popular with the public, not just critics. Standout tracks include “Polyester Bride”, “Johnny Feelgood”, “Baby Got Going”, “Big Tall Man”, and “What Makes You Happy”. The songs are clear and tight, her voice is stronger than ever, and the instruments never distract from the lyrics, which have always been her greatest music asset. “Polyester Bride” should be getting airplay in this area, but isn’t. This is the song you may have seen Phair perform on any of a half dozen TV appearances in the last few months. And it’s as good as anything else released this fall
Start time: 8:35 p.m.
Curtains closed, pictures of Liz and friends are projected.
Music starts, curtain still closed, light shining through to show Liz's silhouette.
1. Explain It To Me
Liz says, "I feel like I'm back home." "This is a beautiful theater. We're all really excited about this show." "Happy birthday to Jessica!" (21st birthday) Liz has some friends in the audience.
2. 6'1"
3. Cinco De Mayo
4. White Chocolate Space Egg
5. Support System
6. Never Said
7. Johnny Feelgood
8. Mesmerizing
During the end, Liz starts doing these exotic stretching moves. She says they're good for her back.
She is wearing her backless brown dress with chunky brown sandals. Her hair looks beautiful.
9. Uncle Alvarez
10. Polyester Bride
11. Flower
Lights are dim. Then, for the next song, the lights are back to normal.
12. Supernova
13. What Makes You Happy
14. Dance of the Seven Veils
This song is done by only Liz and her lead guitarist. A fan gave her flowers after What Makes You Happy, but she set them down in order to use her free hand like she's holding a tray for the part about a "platter" ("…and I am gonna get your heavy head.").
15. Divorce Song
Encore:
16. Perfect World
She has a mess up with the guitar and gets embarrassed. During the song, butterfly pictures are projected on the background.
17. Fuck and Run
She danced and danced at the end of this song. Before she started dancing, she threw her pick into the crowd.
End time: 9:40 p.m.
Ahh... Why did I mention the pick-throwing? Well, I didn't actually catch that one, but a stage-guy gave me one of hers that was lying on the stage post-concert. It is now featured in my room... A great concert, really. It was so exciting and the venue was beautiful.
Okay, I went to the show last night. (Review submitted on 2/02/99) Mind you this is the first time I've ever listened to Liz Phair. Also there were some problems with the sound. Her voice wasn't comming through properly and the music was way to loud. But there she was all cleavaged out. Okay, lets begin... She had some really good music. Very rifey with guitar loops that would make someone go crazy in their seat. Her voice was deep and sultry which accented very well with the backup singer (who by the way I thought was Joan Ozborne). When she sang "Porcelan Bride" ("Polyester Bride") her emotion shot up at us like a wave of ideas and thoughts that foarced themselves out. Her use of "verbal provocations" raised a few eye brows from me and some laughes betweet me and my friends. I especially liked it when she said something along the lines of "Im your blowjob queen" ("Flower"), and "We can do it while watching TV backwards" ("Chopsticks") or something like that. All and all her performance was rich in emotion and provocativness. It stimulated the mind and tickled the libitoes of just about everyone in the theatre. But I have to say that when it was all over, Alanis took us by the heads and threw us into a wall because she rocked our worlds beyond what my extensive vocabulary could even begin to comprehend, and that Im still recovering from.
(Submitted 2/05/99)
Liz sang for about 45 minutes with songs from each of her 3 albums. She
sang all the "popular" songs. She sounded great although she appeared rather nervous through the first song. She was twitching her foot a lot but after that she seemed to loosen up a lot. Her backup singer (I don't know her name but she looks a lot like Joan Osborne) was great as well. She didn't say very much, she just sang. She wore a silky black dress with spaghetti straps and black sandles.
My Big Tall Man says, "Liz Phair rocks! That's why I'm always dancing!"