The year was 1995. I was born in New York at the end of a harsh January winter. By the summer, Alanis Morrissette released “Jagged Little Pill,” a 13-track record that encapsulated the ideals of the post-grunge era: raw and real lyrics of feminine power over angsty guitars contrasted with the confessional, acoustic tracks, with massive choruses ready for an audience of coffeehouse hipsters to arena rockers. While COVID-19 had prevented Alanis from celebrating the record with a proper tour in 2020, the postponed 25th anniversary run of “Jagged Little Pill” had made its way to the iThink Amphitheater in West Palm Beach, Florida to a crowd of young queer folk kids and MTV-era Gen X’ers that pine for an era when “TV and radio played real music.”
Cat Power
Chan Marshall aka Cat Power took the stage first, armed only with her Danelectro guitar to play her cover of “Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones. With a historic career of nearly 30 years in the music industry, she still took to the arena stage with all the confidence of an open mic performer. “I’m sorry I’m not Liz Phair” she proclaimed with self-deprecating gusto between her transitioning instruments from guitar to piano. Phair, the 90s alt-rocker who had a brief foray into pop rock in the early aughts, unfortunately had to drop off the tour due to personal reasons, leaving Cat Power as a replacement mere weeks before the tour was set to launch. Between her sets of classic tracks like “The Greatest,” Marshall detailed her big break opening for Phair in 1993, at a time when she was stealing from grocery stores to be able to eat. Being paid $200 a show to open Phair’s indie rock classic “Exile in Guyville” tour saw Cat Power get massive recognition and launched a career that has seen her collaborate with everyone from Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth to Lana Del Rey on her latest record “Wanderer.”
Garbage
Garbage sounded as tight as an ensemble as ever, performing tracks from their latest record “No Gods, No Masters.” While a brief hiatus in the 2000s saw the band take some time from each other, their cohesion as a unit, lead by the iconic Shirley Manson felt like Garbage never missed a beat. However, the set wasn’t all new tracks as the group definitely played some of their greatest hits that have transcended media like “#1 Crush” from Baz Luhrmann’s classic “Romeo and Juliet” and “When I Grow Up” that was featured in Adam Sandler’s “Big Daddy.” Manson did introduce “When I Grow Up” as a track that was “played heavily on a little channel called MTV” as a bit of nostalgia baiting. Similarly, the singer also deemed the headliner Alanis Morrissette as “the Billie Eilish of the 90s” in a bit of reverence for the singer as a reference to the youngins that the Sad Girl aesthetic has its roots in the songstresses of Generation X. Closing with the tongue-in-cheek “Only Happy When It Rains” the band readied the crowd for the main event of the night.
Alanis Morrissette
As the lights dimmed to an LED video display of some of Alanis’ appearances in film and TV (though I would argue the exclusion of this MadTV clip is criminal) the opening Hendrix-esque guitar of “All I Really Want” ushered Alanis Morrissette on-stage, armed with a microphone and harmonica. Behind the singer, footage of protests from Black Lives Matter activists proclaiming the names of victims of police brutality on signs plays on a loop as Morrissette sings “And I am frightened by the corrupted ways of this land/If only I could meet the maker.” As a child of the year this album was released, I can’t exactly speak to Clinton-era politics aside from TV shows lampooning the Lewinsky scandal. Yet, the idea that these songs were written with the same socio-political conflicts in mind that are still prevalent today speaks to the nature of change and the question of incrementalism in our fast-paced world. As a celebration of a quarter century of “Jagged Little Pill” the set saw Morrissette play the record interspersed with some new tracks from her latest “Such Pretty Forks in the Road.” While she’s been known more for her lyricism and songwriting, there’s something underrepresented in her bigger hits in that Morrissette is a fantastic vocalist. Yes her “-isms” when it comes to her vocal style make for great impersonations, tracks like “Mary Jane” with its commentary on her perception of body image, showcased her impeccable range as a singer with a mezzo-soprano belt, tackling high notes with vigor in a voice that has not aged a day. This credence helped lead to a musical “Jagged Little Pill,” a jukebox show of the record with a script by “Juno” director Diablo Cody, which sees a similar approach to social issues through the lens of Morrissette’s lyrics. Alanis did not speak much between songs, rather allowing the stacked setlist and video projections speak for themselves. With a whole set of major “JLP” hits, her finale consisted of the former hidden track “Your House” which was never given a formal release on “JLP” only as an acapella demo, “Uninvited” from the “City of Angels” soundtrack, which is far more remembered for making massive hits than the film itself. Closing with “Thank U” the singer left the show on a note of gratitude as Twitter comments with grateful sentiments played on the video screens.
Alanis Morrissette Setlist
- All I Really Want
- Hand in My Pocket
- Right Through You
- You Learn
- Hands Clean (Interlude)
- Forgiven
- Everything (Interlude)
- Mary Jane
- Diagnosis (Interlude)
- Reasons I Drink
- Head Over Feet
- So Unsexy(Interlude)
- Ablaze
- Perfect
- Losing the Plot(Interlude)
- Wake Up
- Not the Doctor
- Ironic
- Sympathetic Character(Interlude)
- Smiling
- You Oughta Know
Encore: - Your House(Varying musical styles)
- Uninvited
- Thank U