For all of the talk about how Liz Phair does whatever the hell she wants, she is pretty adept at giving her audience what they want from her, at least on stage. She may have thought it was a good idea to try rapping on “Bollywood,” the free single she released when dropping her self-released Funstyle earlier this year but during her set on Tuesday, she was quite the populist, playing songs as far back as her “Girlysound” demos and ignoring her poor-selling, fifth album Somebody’s Miracle.
She took the stage with her band shortly after 10pm and quickly launched into “Supernova” and going through her set, she reminded everyone in the packed Crocodile that she’d make a killer Greatest Hits album. She sounded great with her band, mostly being faithful to the album versions of her songs (though there are a lot of different versions of a lot of different songs floating around in the Internet) and she found much of the audience singing along.
One person near the front asked her if she was planning on playing stuff from her new album and she asked if he was a reviewer and joked “I take umbrage at your review.” It was right before she played the first of two songs from Funstyle, “And He Slayed Her.”
She not only knew her audience (or at least what they wanted to hear) but also where she was playing, noting that this particular area of Seattle was like “Concert Row” with the Showbox at the Market, Moore Theater and Crocodile all being within a few blocks of each other. At another point she asked the crowd “are you guys going to freak out if I do some pop stuff?” before playing “Extraordinary.”
The most depressing thing about seeing Liz Phair play was the hordes of middle-aged men who seem to only be there to hear her play “Flower,” the Exile in Guyville song where she sings of wanting to be “your blowjob queen.” That seemed a little muted this time (though not completely absent, unfortunately) but the most prominent request she got was when she came back for an encore and someone was loudly asking for “Soap Star Joe,” another Guyville track. She obliged even though her guitarist said he didn’t know it and her bassist left the stage for most of the song. Maybe it’s just people from record labels that refuse to tell her what to do.
For the finale, she played “Flower,” almost anticlimactically, though she brought up a young woman on stage to sing it with her. Phair introduced the woman by saying “this is Patricia and she’s cooler than you are.”
It’s hard to imagine anyone at the Crocodile being disappointed with her 75-minute, twenty-song set. She sounded great and seemed to have had a lot of fun on stage. It was the smallest venue I’ve seen her play in (which included the aforementioned Moore, Showbox and also on the mainstage at Bumbershoot a few years ago), thereby proving that she’s still big, it’s the clubs that have gotten small.
Set list:
- Supernova
- 6’1”
- Divorce Song
- May Queen
- Never Said
- Johnny Feelgood
- Nashville
- And He Slayed Her
- Polyester Bride
- Perfect World
- Mesmerizing
- Oh Bangladesh
- Extraordinary
- Stratford On-Guy
- Fuck and Run
___
- Soap Star Joe
- Friend of Mine
- Black Market White Baby Dealer
- Why Can’t I?
- Flower
on 
on 
on 
As a 45 year old guy who was there, I don’t understand your comments about the most depressing thing…was the hordes of middle aged men…
What was depressing at all about the show?I saw a pretty tame crowd that leaned more toward middle aged women (and nothing wrong with that) who were excited to see Liz Phair in such an intimate setting.
I don’t think anyone left depressed except you apparently.
I’m not sure if you read the review I wrote, just what you wanted to read. I wrote, “It’s hard to imagine anyone at the Crocodile being disappointed with her 75-minute, twenty-song set. She sounded great and seemed to have had a lot of fun on stage.” I’m not sure where that implies I left disappointed, quite the opposite.
This was (at least) the fifth time I’ve seen Phair play and it was the first one that I’ve been to where people, mostly in the demographic I described, weren’t repeatedly shouting for “Flower” to be played. Yes, I find it depressing when the same people are constantly shouting for the most overtly sexual song in her catalogue.
So here is my beef. Where are the photos? What about some videos? When I read a live review, I want to see the show, not some lame airbrushed promo pic. This has hurt your review.
She played “Flower” in LA and I presume at every show, because it’s *popular*. It’s a good song. That it’s overtly sexual is neither here nor there.
Entertaining read! Nice to read a review from a fan for a change. I took a few photos, get a hold of me if you would like to use them.
I didn’t think it would be held against me for not taking photos or videos(I’m a writer, I don’t own an SLR and I don’t shoot video of bands with my iPhone, which some people don’t like and taking notes is hard enough). I didn’t have a photographer at the show, so the airbrushed photo I used was the Funstyle album cover. I couldn’t find a current press photo, or one that I would have permission to use.
I don’t know how everyone is finding this review (but I appreciate the uptick in traffic!) and I’m not sure why I’m engaging people that don’t care that I’m on my way to review a Miike Snow show in a few hours and one by Superchunk tomorrow, but any familiarity with what I write would yield that I’m in favor of sexiness in pop music, my only objection is that repeatedly calling out “play ‘Flower!’” is a slightly more sophisticated version of shouting “take it off” to a waitress. I think the song is fine (maybe one of the ten best on Guyville) and I don’t have any objections with it (and certainly Phair knows that or she wouldn’t play it (like she doesn’t play “HWC” often).
But anyway, thank you all for reading. I’m glad you stopped by and do approach what I write honestly. And thank you Rhianon. I’m a reviewer and critic (not the one singled out at the show) but I am a fan, too.
Hey man,
Liz posted this from her facebook page, thus the traffic.
And dude, fuck SLR cameras and pro photographers. WE ARE THE NEW MEDIA. I run concertconfessions.com (shameless plug). I have been blessed with a photo pass a few time, but as the NEW MEDIA I just bring my kick ass Panasonic DMC-ZS3 into shows. I can be in a cheap seat and get a photo as good as a pro in the pit.
Hopefully my comment didn’t sound rude. I just was shocked to see a review with no photos.
Best,
Reverned Justito
Chris: The link was posted on liz’s facebook.
Everyone else: You can see some photos on my neglected website, http://longistheday.com/concert-liz-phair-2010.php
I just checked out your photos – great shots.
As a 45-year-old man, I had to laugh when I read the line about the “hordes” of me! If you think that was bad, you should’ve seen the audience at the Matador 21st… anyway, I don’t even like the song ‘Flower’ all that much.
If you don’t mind my including a link, we got some great photos of Liz at the Matador thing: http://www.guttersnipenews.com/gallery/?album=1&gallery=585
Shawn-
Thanks for your reply. Your photos are great! I wish I could have gone to the Matador 21st weekend in Vegas. I had some friends that went and I couldn’t look at Twitter throughout the day without jealousy.
My comment wasn’t directed at you in the slightest because I doubt you were shouting for “Flower” during the break between every song. The first several times I’ve seen Liz play, that seemed to be the most vocal group. I do try to consider how the crowd is made up and that was my snap judgment several times (please trust me that I’m far more critical of people my age and younger – I’m 31, fwiw).