The summer of Liz Phair

I never expected to be able to enjoy a live Liz Phair show three times over the course of a single season.

Technically, it was two in the summer and one in the fall, but since the final one went on sale in the summer, I'm shoehorning it in to my "summer of Liz Phair." It still blows my mind that I went to three shows in such a short time span.

It's probably because I've been a fan since Exile in Guyville, and I'd only been able at two concerts before the windfall. And the best part -- all three were different shows at different venues. It wasn't like an artist giving three straight performances at one place or following a tour to different locations. They were all in Brooklyn, the city I was born in. The cherry on top was finally getting to meet Liz and tell her, after all these years, how much her music has and continues to mean to me.

When Phair first started performing, she admitted she had to deal with stage fright. This year's performances showed how far she's come from then. She engages audiences and has started to feed off them. To hear Liz say she was looking forward to getting out on stage at the third show was rather mind-blowing.

The first one was wayyyy back on June 7 at the National Sawdust. The capacity of the striking venue is a mere 350 and it made for a very intimate night on the "Girly Sound to Guyville" Tour stop in support of the stupendous anniversary box set of the same name. I'll stop for a second to praise every single element of that release, because officially getting the amazing tracks and the eye-opening booklet examining all the elements of it was the first huge joy of the "summer of Liz Phair."

I found Exile in Guyville back in 1993 after it was voted Album of the Year in the Village Voice's Pazz and Jop Poll. I listened to it a lot as I wandered the streets of New York City that year. And the next year. I turned as many friends onto it as I could. I bought all the bootlegs I could lay my hands on. Eventually I found Support System -- once a mailing list and still a vibrant Facebook group -- and was turned on to a lot of the unreleased tracks. But having copies of copies' copies can't compare with the remastered versions on the box set.

And the first show felt like a celebration of all of that. Even better, I experienced it with the force of nature behind Support System (then and now) -- Jason Long, who flew in for the show. We queued up for the general admission event together, talking about the good ol' email list days as well as the box set and pondered what was in store for us that night.

Setlist: Fuck or Die, 6'1", Explain It to Me, Batmobile, Easy, Go West, Soap Star Joe, Ant in Alaska, Girls! Girls! Girls!, Help Me Mary, Stratford-on-Guy, Mesmerizing, Polyester Bride, Whip-Smart, Never Said, Fuck and Run, Divorce Song. 

Soccer Mommy (aka Sophie Allison) warmed us up and we were reminded of how widespread Liz's impact has been on music. And from the very first notes of the Johnny Cash-tinged "Fuck or Die" -- one of those songs we once clung to as a bootleg release -- the show was just a sweet sashay through history that, in a strange and wonderful way, we've come to share with Phair.

The first show, with just Liz and guitarist Connor Sullivan, felt like a big sing-along. The longtime fans in attendance knew all the songs, even some of the previously unreleased ones. As usual, I chose lip syncing over belting out the songs off key. No one needed to hear me do that, even in a room full of people doing the same.

We were definitely celebrating "Batmobile," a track that made the cut for the EP Juvenilia, but hadn't previously been played live and "Ant from Alaska," which surfaced on the previous anniversary edition of Guyville. So many songs are close to my heart, basically the entire setlist on this occasion.

Liz recalled sitting her bedroom recording the original Girly Sound songs and how she never expected to be celebrating Guyville and the box set release 25 years after that. "There are all these people in my bedroom," she laughed after loosening up around "Soap Star Joe."

From our vantage spot about halfway back, we could see Liz taking on intricate guitar chores on songs. I noticed it the most during "Easy" and "Girls! Girls! Girls!" but with the duo wailing away on stage, it was obviously ongoing. Most were the Guyville versions, but it was wondrous to hear a take on "Whip-Smart" closer to the original demo.



The second concert was a real surprise, a one-off show opening for Blondie at House of Vans on July 20. Another general-admission event, I got there early and parked myself on line with a lot of Blondie fans. The extra bonus was hearing soundcheck -- "Extraordinary," "Never Said," "Supernova," "Divorce Song" and what sounded like "Mesmerizing" noodling -- fairly clearly through a brick wall.

Setlist: 6'1", Fuck and Run, Divorce Song, Polyester Bride, Stratford-on-Guy, Never Said, Supernova, Johnny Feelgood, Extraordinary, Why Can't I?

It wasn't quite the same crowd of well-behaved diehard fans as the first event. They were more, ahem, a little like savages. My primary example is the millennial who wasn't there when the venue opened (and thusly hadn't parked in front of the stage for 75 minutes or so like the rest of us),  but muscled her way through the throng after Sasami opened the show. After I wouldn't give way so she could get a couple of inches closer, she poured her drink down my 1995 Phair shirt. I still didn't budge. Then she tried to shove her way past me by snarling, "You're not a lesbian, I am." I am all for LGBT, but that's not a golden ticket for rudeness.

Then again, a free show is a free show. It was spectacular to get a free t-shirt and a tote bag as well. Liz has worn her Vans shirt at gigs since and mine is already worn out as well.

Liz told us after years of wearing heels on stage and messing up her knees, she had wised up and started decked out in some comfortable Vans. She also donned a sweet Blondie shirt and a sequined shirt. She definitely worked the latter out on "Johnny Feelgood" and "Supernova."



She seemed to be having a blast on stage. Maybe it was the pressure-free existence in which she belted out 10 tunes with a full band and then hung backstage with Deborah Harry. While the audience didn't know the material quite as well this time, the energy and exuberance was definitely there for the hit-laden set.

The capper was the Amps on the Lawn tour stop at Brooklyn Steel (nope, no lawn there) on Oct. 6. That was right at the end of New York Comic Con, and the chance to see Liz again had me sold already, but then the added bonus -- a meet-and-greet!

We left the con early, that turned out to be a good thing since the directions I got online deposited us on the opposite side of Brooklyn. An Uber later, Sestra and I were still the first two people in line. So we were standing front and center for soundcheck. A fog machine seemed to be pumping away on high and Liz told us to "Come on in!" It seemed like a horror movie with a really good soundtrack.

The band started off with a warmup instrumental before kicking into "Supernova," "Polyester Bride" and "Mesmerizing." I teared up during "Polyester Bride," Liz was singing and I was mouthing the words at the same time. Liz asked whether it was all right if they worked on "Uncle Alvarez," -- as though we would complain about that -- because she felt like her vocals were wandering on lyrics like "imaginary accomplishments." Afterward, she asked, "Doesn't that [song] feel really relevant right now? It's kind of scary." Yeah, it really does.

I spent a couple months trying to figure out what to say to someone whose work has influenced me so greatly. But yet when I got to the front of the meet-and-greet line, what sprang to mind was how the photographer was "Tatum O'Neal-ing." Regular blog readers might recall that the Oscar-winning actress prefers to be photographed at an angle from up higher. And when I referred to Tatum as a verb, Liz asked about Tatum O'Neal-ing.

My subsequent dialogue went something like this: "Tatum O'Neal-ing is ... oh, hi, I'm Paige. Big fan forever." (Or some such bunk.) I started to explain Tatum-ing again. "Is it OK if I get a hug?  (Then after the hug,) so I thought [the photographer] was Tatum O-Nealing because he is so tall!" That really wasn't what I worked so hard trying to come up with for three months. But when it was her turn, Sestra saved the day -- as she often does. She told Liz I introduced her music to her and Liz asked "Do you want to join us?" for their photo as well. I think I made some kind of "uhhh, yeah" retort and a Roadrunner noise circling back over to them. That's when I started shaking. Oh well, at least my adrenaline rush held off until then.

Setlist: Supernova, Johnny Feelgood, Cinco de Mayo, Uncle Alvarez, Everything to Me, Never Said, 6'1", Help Me Mary, Blood Keeper (with Sadie Dupuis), The Game, Mesmerizing, Polyester Bride, Stratford-on-Guy, Extraordinary, Why Can't I? Encore: Fuck and Run, Divorce Song.



Back at the National Sawdust show, Liz had mentioned the unique energy of New York. "It might be supernatural," she said at Brooklyn Steel, later adding that if property values were lower in New York she would surely move here. "I couldn't wait to fuckin' get on stage tonight."

The audience at the last show seemed like a combination of the two prior ones, and they really liked the whitechocolatespaceegg material. We didn't get quite the vantage point we had for soundcheck, just a row of people or so behind, but we were close enough to make eye contact with guitarists Connor Sullivan and Cody Perrin. To the right of my sister, there were a bunch of jostling millennials who squeezed in after the end of opener Speedy Ortiz's set. I'm not sure how many knew what a boon it was to get the unreleased WCSE-era song "Blood Keeper," performed with Speedy Ortiz's lead singer Sadie Dupuis.

The full band sounded great. We had new insight into "Uncle Alvarez" after the soundcheck and were even listening for "wandering vocals" and knowing glances. Loved the new song, "The Game," although it was the one song I didn't know all the words to. Otherwise, it was just me rocking out and lip syncing to every song. It was all the more fun for having my sister there, and she held up well considering it was a long day that capped an exhaustively enjoyable Comic Con week.

I love how this trifecta ultimately panned out. The most emotional musical experience came first and the long-awaited opportunity to meet her and rock out with my sister was most recent. I couldn't have scheduled it better if I had something to do with any of it.

I'll be waiting patiently for my next opportunity to see her, but I don't expect anything like "the summer of Liz Phair" to wash over me again.