LIZ PHAIR with SPEEDY ORTIZ at Phoenix Concert Theatre, Wednesday, October 10. Rating: NNNN
Liz Phair hasn’t toured much in the last few years but you’d never know it.
With a broad smile, dressed in a Blondie t-shirt, black blazer and jeans, against a backdrop of fake green grass, Phair opened the show with Supernova from the 1994 record Whip-Smart.
Those expecting a strict Exile In Guyville setlist from the singer/songwriter, now 51 years old, would be disappointed. Phair did play some incredible songs from that landmark, critically acclaimed 1993 debut (just re-released in the deluxe Girly-Sound To Guyville box set), notably 6’1″, Stratford-On-Guy, the indelible Fuck And Run and Divorce Song. But Phair’s career spans the entirety of the 90s and onwards she has more to offer than just one album.
Millennials and Gen-Xers coexisted harmoniously. Glossy pop, lo-fi acoustic songs and raucous alternative rock – Phair did it all. That’s including Why Can’t I?, a sensational 2003 pop song that I dare anyone not to sing along to with the energy of a teenager hearing it upon their 300th replay.
Phair shone brightest when she stripped back the instrumentation for a moment to play Go West (a performance that drew more from the lo-fi Girly-Sound tapes than the version that appeared on Whip-Smart). As Phair sang “I’ve got to tear my life apart / And go west, young man,” it felt natural to be compelled to tears.
Phair’s set had minimal banter, which lessens the overall sheen of the show. Talking to the audience isn’t a requirement, but it would have fit the occasion. To some of the diehard fans in attendance, Phair is what a rockist bro feels when seeing the (mediocre, I’m not sorry!) Rolling Stones.
Ahead of the tour, openers Speedy Ortiz released a cover of Phair’s Blood Keeper. It would have been too much to expect them to perform it together, but it was comforting to be in a space so dedicated to the complexities and intergenerational talent women have to offer in rock music. Bringing Phair and Speedy singer Sadie Dupuis together in one song would be a dream.
Although the Phoenix was not entirely filled out, Speedy Ortiz’s opening set still felt right for the occasion as they ripped through tracks like Villain, The Graduates and Silver Spring. Dupuis’s shredding artistry was on full display. (Side note: it will never not feel odd and counterintuitive to see someone scrolling through a band’s discography on their phone as said band play onstage in front of them.)
Dupuis mentioned a fundraiser the band had for a Making Spaces Safer book – a guide on how to keep music venues harassment-free or, at the very least, working toward a goal of ensuring venue staff have the knowledge to ensure safety. Dupuis said they gave two books to every venue they stopped at on this tour, which is an extraordinary measure, especially in Toronto where initiatives like these are long overdue.
Phair said in an interview recently that women in rock today feel a lot of the constriction she felt in the early 90s – the boys’ club of music, often prioritized over the vast, varying amount of women in the genre with less visibility. It’s disheartening that this reality hasn’t eroded. But while men still take up the most room in music scenes, especially in rock, and at a time when we’re reckoning with their overbearing nonsense, the image of Phair flanked by an all-male band with her smiling, centred, has stuck with me. It shouldn’t feel extraordinary to see that.
music@nowtoronto.com | @sarahsmacdonald
