The following description of Liz's performance in Chapel Hill is
courtesy of Jay Stallings
(taken from the newsgroup
alt.music.chapel-hill):
Subject: liz phair in chapel hill
Sun, 7 Feb 1999 04:50:02 GMT
liz phair was just totally awesome. i could ask for nothing more
from an artist, except maybe a longer set. she just rocked. damn i hate
that she cancelled the ritz show...
and i'm gonna lose mad indie cred for this, but yes, i stayed for
alanis. hey, i got floor seats for free, i'm gonna take advantage of it.
and a big thank you to the MAN who gave me my ticket. he's awesome.
as for alanis--the woman has an amazing voice, but she doesn't know
it. she keeps bantering about in that piercing shriek while the band plays
music. when she sings lower she sings more within the boundaries of the
key. i'm no music major but i think i can recognize unintentional
dissonance when i hear it...
on the positive side, she did manage to use her voice wonderfully on a
few songs. she was also very into the music, which is always good and
sometimes rare for a mainstream artist. she also played 2 encores, which
surprised me. her band was pretty good, and i like the drummer, even
though he doesn't do anything special. just plays rock and alt-rock drums
pretty well.
so to alanis i say keep playing and stop chirping.
i guess that's all i have to say about that one. -j
The following description of Liz's performance in Chapel Hill is
courtesy of Jessica Stern (taken from
the newsgroup Allison (taken from
the mailing list
Now comes the sad part...afterwards, Christine and I were planning to stalk
Liz. I begged about five security guards, but they told me she'd left
already, and I wasn't allowed backstage anyway. Then Alanis came on so we
decided to go up to the top seats of the auditorium and use Christine's opera
glasses to search for Liz. Those damn security guards are just freakin' liars
b/c I saw Liz really clearly on the side of the stage, though she'd layered on
a maroon shirt. Christie and I snuck up closer and went into an "illegal"
area of the seating that they'd covered over and a security guard yelled at
us. I started crying, begging her to let me go meet Liz since I'd flown all
the way from NY, but the lady told me Liz had left. I was like, "That's such
bullshit, I see her right there!" but she told me to go back to my seat. then
Christine and Rob and I go outside and I stalked a few more guards and some
policemen, harassing ppl w/ backstage passes, chatting it up, but no one
helped me. Finally, during Alanis' second to last song or something, I met
this guy who was like, "You wanna meet Liz? It's too tight backstage, and
she's probably sneaking out anyway since it's almost the end. I'll take you
to her tour bus." My god did I get excited! So we head outside, and the
building's on this plot of land and then alongside one side there's a little
one-way road that leads back to the parking lot where the tour buses are.
Then the guy's like, "Oh, shit, there used to be four buses, now there's only
three." I'm like, "fuck!" and I start walking down a tiny bit down the road,
so I'm kinda in the middle of it width-wise, at the way top of it length-wise,
while Christine, Rob, and the guy are on the curb. the guy's like, "Well,
she's probably not even in her bus, they probably snuck her out in a car."
meanwhile, this car is backing up and I'm in the middle of the road, and
Christine tells me to step to the side so I don't get run over. It takes me a
minute since I was dazed, then I step aside, and the car backs out, turns
around, and drives off. As it passes, Rob goes, "Oh, Liz is in that car."
I'm like, "you have to be shitting me!" He repeats himself one or two more
times, but I dont' believe him. Then I step out and look at the car, and it's
just turning out the area and onto a main road, and I start sobbing. Shit! I
was so damn close to meeting her! If I'd been facing the road from the curb I
would've totally seen her from my angle, since she was in the back, right side
of the car. I'm kinda over the bummed feeling now, but I was soooooooooooo
upset right after and the next day. I cried when I told me mom the story, and
she told me that even if I had run after the car (as I would've had I believed
Rob the first time he'd said it) that the driver would've speeded up. Nobody
tell me otherwise b/c I want to believe that! I'd like to continue thinking
that I did all I could to meet her, not that I could've had I run after.
Whew! I had no idea I had so much to babble about! Well, I guess it's
kinda cool that I was so close to meeting her, and I could extend the story
and say that Liz Phair almost ran me over, although she wasn't driving the car
and I think the car would've waited for me to get out of the way before
backing out, but...still.
I guess I'll just have to wait till the next concert to meet her or
something. I tlod my brother my disappointing endeavor, and he's like, "Third
times the charm!" (He was referring to the time in jan when I had front row,
center seats for this thing w/ Nick brendon @ a sci-fi convention and he
missed his flight and didn't show.) I said, "Bad luck comes in threes " I
guess I'll have to see.
Oh, and Christine wrote me a little e-mail about some concert review
from some local paper, but she's planning to fax it or type it up for me.
here's her summary of the article:
<< In short they said that Alanis is a complete loser phony who sings crap and
that Liz is very talented, but a bit crude for the little kids that came for
Alanis. At they end he said that Liz should have had the ninety minute set
and Alanis the forty because Liz was much better. Alanis was too serious and
therefore silly, and Liz kinda had a mocking tone about the whole star thing.
I'm sure your list will enjoy the Alanis bashing. I know I did! >>
I'll post the review as soon as I get it.
Insert one of many, many cool liz lyrics, although I'm not in the mood
to think of one this second.
- --Allison
The following description of Liz's performance in Chapel Hill is
courtesy of David Menconi (taken from
the Exile in Guyville, with a half-dozen songs.
Even more songs (seven, by my count) had the F-word or worse. Phair
dished out the potty mouth with total unself-consciousness, to the
consternation of some parents in the audience.
While the three songs from Phair's current album,
Whitechocolatespaceegg, were better live than on record, they still
didn't have the spark of the Exile songs. "Six Foot One" kicked like
vintage Rolling Stones, while "Fuck and Run" was as funny, poignant, sad
and disturbing as ever.
Too bad that, at 40 minutes, Phair's set was less than half as long
as Morissette's.
