From: owner-support-system-digest@smoe.org (support-system-digest) To: support-system-digest@smoe.org Subject: support-system-digest V8 #148 Reply-To: support-system@smoe.org Sender: owner-support-system-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-support-system-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk support-system-digest Thursday, October 27 2005 Volume 08 : Number 148 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [support-system] Toronto show [Jase ] [support-system] The Vic 10.25.2005 ["Katie Brown" Subject: [support-system] Toronto show Hey everyone, Just wanted to give a quick review of Liz's show in Toronto on Sunday night, which was nothing short of incredible. It was easily among the best shows of hers I've seen, bettered by only the Lounge Ax show in '99 and the Detroit show in August 2003. She opened the show by playing acoustic versions of "Baby Got Going" and "Soap Star Joe" with Dino. Someone requested "Jeremy Engle," which she also performed acoustically, then followed it with "Girls' Room." After that, she was joined by her full band and played a good mix of songs from all her albums. The set was heavy on EIG songs, which all received an enthusiastic response. In addition to the aforementioned "Soap Star Joe," she also played "6'1," "Help Me, Mary," "Never Said," "Mesmerizing," "Fuck and Run," "Divorce Song," and "Flower." Liz introduced "Never Said" by saying someone had requested it before the show, while "Help Me, Mary" was a request made during the show that Liz decided to play. She only played two songs from Whip-Smart, "Supernova" and "Cinco De Mayo," both of which sounded great. From WCSE, she played "Shitloads of Money" (which was the first full band song of the night) and "Polyester Bride." She did "Extraordinary," "My Bionic Eyes," "Rock Me" and "Why Can't I?" from the last album. "Why Can't I?" was an acoustic version played by just Liz and Dino during the encore, between "Flower" and "Fuck and Run." She barely touched on the songs from the new album, playing only "Somebody's Miracle" and "Lazy Dreamer," the latter of which translated well live. Surprisingly, she didn't play "Everything to Me," even though it is the current single. I can't say I missed it, but there are other songs from the album I would have loved to have heard, like "Why I Lie" and "Everything (Between Us)." Two of the biggest surprises came mid-set. The first was a solo acoustic version of "Hurricane Cindy." I was starting to give up on the idea of ever hearing it live, so it was a nice treat. Liz flubbed the very last part, but undeterred, just grinned and sang the last couple of lines really fast before strumming the final chord. The other surprise was an off-the-cuff cover of Joni Mitchell's "Free Man in Paris." It seems that the band had rehearsed it, but it was not on the setlist. Hopefully they will do it at more shows on this tour, because they did a phenomenal job with it. I was just floored by how well Liz did in particular, because it's definitely not an easy song to sing. I never expected to hear Liz cover Joni, who is another of my favorite songwriters, so it really made my night. I think that pretty much covers everything she played; it was a fairly long set, around 90 minutes. I did see a copy of the setlist, which was much different than what was actually played. "Fine Again," "Stratford-on-Guy," "Chopsticks," "Stars and Planets," and "H.W.C." were all on the printed setlist. I would have loved it if she'd played the first two, but there's always next time... For anyone who's debating about whether or not to see Liz on this tour, do yourself a favor and go. You won't be disappointed. Jase ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2005 17:19:06 +0000 From: "Katie Brown" Subject: [support-system] The Vic 10.25.2005 Liz Phair The Vic Chicago, IL October 25,2005 Crowd was really worked up by the time Liz walked on stage in her World Series jacket and said "I just HAD to wear this tonight" then she did a veeeery slow turn to give us a better look at the jacket and said "I'm just gonna milk it, and milk it, and milk it." Throughout the show Liz periodically ran off to check the score and at one point said, " Can you imagine if we actually WON the World Series? That would be like the 1986 Bears, or the Bulls, or if Oprah came home". Didn't really get that last part, but Liz was in a great mood all night. Her voice and playing were amazing. Everything to Me* (Who plays their new single first? I loved it) Wild Thing* (to Dino: let's do an old one ... what's your favorite one to do?") Baby Got Going* (then the band came out, bassist, keyboardist, dummer) Stars and Planets (so much fun - but the band is having trouble getting in sync) Headache (band is really struggling - Liz just smiled, Dino was spaced out and finally started signing instructions to the bassist) Uncle Alvarez (band is ON for the rest of the night) 6'1" (excellent - band totally jammed it out) Help Me Mary Extraordinary (vocal jam at the end "averageeverydaysanepsycho" with Liz, Dino and bassist chanting it) Little Digger** ("I have to play this one now because I miss my son." This one was way emo... thoguht of you Sandra) Polyester Bride (this was a total Chicago moment. You could tell she was so it her head about that time in her life) Lazy Dreamer (excellent! she was smiling so much at Dino and the hilarious classic part about it is that he was totally spaced out and hunched over jamming. hello irony! she was smiling almost to the point that she was laughing at him and i think jokingly rolled her eyes at one point) Mesmerizing (totally jammed out at the end - Liz left the stage while the band jammed it out) Cinco de Mayo (people are bopping all over the place, crowd starting getting a little wild) Never Said (tons of fun, bopping) Why Can't I? (older couples are swaying along to this one) My Bionic Eyes (HUGE highlight - totally jammed out... just love the lyrics) Divorce Song (classic crowd pleaser) Supernova (totally rocked out) * Acoustic w/Dino (no band) ** solo, alone on stage After jamming for a few minutes and ending Supernova Liz said "Thanks you guys" and BOOKED off the stage... she ran off so fast you could barely even see her and was carrying a big duffle bag. Everyone in the band seemed to grab their sutff - i vaguely remember the keyboardist grabbing his hoodie and they all took off so fast. I thought for sure they were out of there. The last couple of times I've seen Liz she just didn't do an encore, so I've been used to it. But the crowd was going absolutely NUTS -- probably the wildest I've even seen at a Liz Phair show. Several minutes went by and the tension was building... every once and a while the house lights would come on and this only made the crowd wilder. All of a sudden I was just freaking out. Patrick said I was cutting off the circulation in his hands I was grabbing them so hard. By the way this was on a full night's rest, two sqare meals and three Miller Lites, nothing else. But I'm bugging out nonetheless. I felt like time was going by so slowy. I had really wanted to hear Wind and the Mountain, but I was so pleased with the show the way it was and it would have been stellar even up until then. The band came back on stage and just started jamming for a really long time. Still no Liz. For some reason I felt like I had no idea what was going on. They were playing this trippy ass rock and I couldn't even recognize it. FINALLY Liz comes back on and starts singing FLOWER! (It was definitely once of the best versions I've ever heard. Real spaced out.) Fuck and Run (tons of fun, my jaw was already on the floor, I was basking in appreciation -- the band left and Liz started saying goodbye and waving then stepped up to the mic and said "I just wanna do one more by myself"... and walked over and climbed up to the keys and started Chopsticks (BEAUTIFUL. She sang her heart out and everyone left happy.) Second best Liz show I've ever seen. KB ------------------------------ End of support-system-digest V8 #148 ************************************