I hate to say it, but I was quite disappointed with this show. She didn't really seem into it, and at times, the guitars drowned out her singing almost entirely. I was standing at stage right near one of the columns.
Sondre Lerche finishes playing around 7:50. Liz and band
appear on stage around 8:10 and finishes (was there an
encore after all?) around 9:00. I didn't stick around for
Mraz. We waited outside by the buses for a bit afterwards,
but not for long as it was hot and humid.
- -drew
Set List
========
6'1"
Polyester Bride
Rock Me
Divorce Song
Help Me Mary
Extraordinary
Fuck and Run
(introduces someone in the band)
Favorite
Johnny Feelgood
Why Can't I
Red Light Fever
Glory (solo)
Supernova
(teases us about singing Flower, didn't catch it all)
H.W.C.
(exit stage)
I didn't think I was going to get to a Liz show this time around because tickets to the Bowery Ballroom show on Sunday and last night's show at Roseland were sold out when I tried to get tickets. But my friend miraculously had an extra ticket because one of the people she was supposed to go to the show at Roseland with bailed.
I was so happy to be there! I was having a really crappy day and this was just the remedy I needed. We got stuck in traffic on the way and missed the opening act, and walked in as Liz was playing 6'1". It was a pretty young crowd, but I noticed some other mid-20's people like me as well as some 30's and up. It seemed like most of the audience was there to see Jason Mraz.
I was kind of surprised that Liz played Help Me Mary and Glory. Glory definitely sounded odd, but I really liked hearing her old stuff. She sprinkled her set with the new songs, and even though the sound system was kind of screwed up, I still thought that the new songs sounded better and more real Liz than the overproduced versions on the CD. I really like Red Light Fever.
I noticed that her voice sounded a lot lower than it usually does (and more confident), compared with other shows I've been to. Could have something to do with the messed up acoustic effects, though. I'm not tech knowledgable enough to be able to really say for sure. But she sounded fine to me. I was just thrilled to be there, that it really didn't matter what she sounded like--she could have been playing the alphabet song on a xylophone and I would have been satisfied.
Wanted to hear Flower, but H.W.C. was a cute enough way to end her set. I was rather peeved at how short her set was and how much longer Jason Mraz's set was. Granted, Mraz was damn good and put on a very entertaining show, which even I was able to enjoy despite knowing only one of his songs (Remedy), but it was supposed to be a double bill, not Liz Phair as his opening act.
I'm glad I didn't miss seeing Liz live in her first tour in five years. I was feeling a bit mopey about that, despite the whole selling out issue. I have a sort of unconditional love for Liz, and I really hope I can meet her one day to let her know what a big impact her music has had on me. This show wasn't quite as good as when she played Roseland in 1998, but I'm happy I was there.
Now, I have to figure out if I can get up early enough on Friday to see her play at 7am at Bryant Park, which is a block away from my office.
~Andrea S.
first, the line outside was ridiculous. as a girl on an elevator said 20 minutes before i was heading over to the roseland, 'it's wicked hot out there today!'. and it was. inside, where i'd seen liz before, in a solo solo show, there was a/c, but it didn't matter once you got into the crush of the crowd. the first douche came out and -- as someone else already said - -- crooned about 8 songs, including murdering 'night and day'. a) doing a cole porter standard at a rock show is a gamey proposition. b) doing it badly just pisses everyone off: people who think 'night and day' is a classic think you're a douche, and people who don't know the song are scratching their heads about why you're doing that old-person's song in the first place. he is talented, but so are a lot of people. he took up space and time. that's about all i can say about him.
this show was running on a drum-tight schedule. liz showed up at 8:10 or 8:15, played 14 songs with zero investment or emotion, backed by a faceless band (the guitarist *might* have been joe perry if joe perry was, what, 30 years younger, and the keyboard player, who was the apparent chick magnet of the bunch, was, i think, the guy who plays angel on 'buffy', and on his own show. must be on hiatus). someone else posted the set-list, so i won't. 'extraordinary' may have come off the best, even though i'm not a fan of the song. 'help me mary' was underwater, '6'1"' was rushed and no fun. the fat old guys in hipster suits up in the VIP seats to the left of the audience were rockin' out to 'why can't i', although the fasetto bit was ragged and sad (is the lyric something like, 'i would love for you to pull me under'? that's the part that was a bit tough to stomach). they also responded to 'rock me' and 'favorite'. so i wonder if they're affiliated with the matrix, and were mentally counting their royalties. 'red light fever' was the most interesting song to me, because it seemed more bitter and without an ounce of sympathy for the person being addressed and described in the song. 'glory' was okay, but the mix was still bad, so if you didn't already know the song, you weren't going to get it by listening to that version. liz basically begged pete yorn to come up on stage about 4 different times. finally, after all her pleading, well, he still never showed. assume he was either passed out loaded backstage, or just not up for the 'hwc' singalong bit, which was as uninspired as i would've predicted, even as i would've been hoping it would actually be good.
liz did not mesmerize, did not glow, did not dazzle the audience. she appeared bored (maybe just tired of the strict rules that apply to any opening act) and not much into it. played more songs off the new cd than some of the other set lists have indicated, so i'm thinking maybe the label is pressing her to do that in the bigger cities like nyc. we'll see how it goes in d.c. she had talked at the start of the tour about co-headlining, but that was before it became painfully apparent that mraz is selling more tickets, so while she seemed to be playing to the vip-sters upstairs more than to the paying audience, it may be that she's just bummed about still having to open for a guy with one cd, that has probably (and unfairly) outsold all 4 of her cd's combined.
her voice is better than ever, no question. but, having seen her live 5 times now, this was easily her least-interesting performance. even when she was opening for alanis, she appeared to be having a lot more fun. on that last tour she had a band that could do interesting things with the songs. this time out the songs were bashed out and over right on time (which worked for many of the new ones (and maybe that's the point, eh?) , but the discipline (or anality) strangled most of the set).
didn't hang to see jason mraz, although what i've heard off his cd is no worse than, say, john mayer or a half-dozen other singers who seem heavily influenced by george michael in his 'Faith' period, and by each other.
note that scalpers were going crazy trying to unload tickets outside the roseland, and i would not be surprised if below-face value tix were available by show-time. 100% chance you could find someone to sell you tickets at the door for no more than face value.
reviews from the bowery ballroom show were better, i think, and i hope it was a better show. this one was not bad, not great. mostly unremarkable. i'll be interested, though, to see if other people enjoyed it more than i did.
o
quick thoughts on the roseland show:
i was pretty frightened by the crowd. i mean, i'm 20 and pretty much look like a teenager, so i probably blended in, but seeing a whole line of them (around the entire physical block, winding around to the back of the club [which was good b/c i saw where the tour buses were]) was really scary. i couldn't believe that a guy with one radio hit had soooo many fans. sheesh.
eventually i got inside and managed to squeeze my way up to the front, on stage right, i guess, which ended up being prefect b/c not only was that where i was in '98 (ah, nostalgia -- my first live liz experience), but the security guard was super nice, and the guitar tuner/changer was right there. SO....one of my main goals this evening was to get a gift to liz (these little bags i make w/ legs -- if you can't visualize: www.angelfire.com/emo/sticks and ask herto be a guest on my radio show next time she's in the boston area. i wanted to meet her backstage/by the bus after, but i thought i might as well try my luck w/ someone who was going ONstage.
so the security guard passed back a note and the bags to the tuner/changer, who nodded to me, so i stopped freaking out about my game plan and tried to enjoy the show. tried. i mean, i did, but as other ppl mentioned, the show was very lackluster. liz didn't seem that into it, and often you couldn't even hear her singing, which was a shame, since i'd rather hear her voice than the standard band, which was pretty boring.
the best part for me was at the end, when as she was taking off the guitar to leave, the guitar guy (now my favorite person ever) gave her the bags, and she held them up to the audience to wave goodbye as she exited! while the show itself wasn't so hot, that in itself made my year. i haven't been t