F-Measure: Liz Phair - Live 2003-08-09 (concert)

Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Liz Phair - Live 2003-08-09 (concert)

For another installment in Women's History Month, I turn to Liz Phair, one of my favorite artists. I've been meaning to get to her landmark LPs "Exile in Guyville" and "Whip-smart", but that's going to have to wait as well. Also, as a preview, her 2010 LP "Funstyle" was pretty good too. She's scheduled to be in Va Beach this summer, but we'll see if coronavirus has other ideas (update: they're being rescheduled). We saw her in 2011 when she was at the Norva and it was a great show (I found this version of "Nashville" from that show -- not my video).

Last week I also finished reading her memoir "Horror Stories" (reviews: NPR, NYT, Pitchfork, CBS This Morning). When I saw that she was releasing a book I added it to my Christmas wish list and was happy to receive a copy. I had not read that much about it before I started it -- I knew it was about Liz Phair, and that was all I needed to know. As a result, I was rather surprised to learn that the choice of title was not arbitrary -- her collections of stories are more about personal loss, conflict, and "horror" than the Liz Phair-meets-Spinal Tap rock & roll war stories I expected (the chapter "sotto voce" being a notable exception). I read the first three chapters in one sitting and decided it wasn't the soothing "escape-from-coronavirus" experience I was looking for, but I recalibrated my expectations and enjoyed the rest of the book.

I eventually determined that the stories reminded me of Ray Bradbury's "Dandelion Wine", one of my favorite books. Even in Bradbury's childhood nostalgia, there is a fantastical and dark spectre (e.g., the "Lonely One") that hangs over the stories, and I connected that to the "horror" which glues Phair's stories together. I posted this observation on Twitter and got a reply back from Liz, which made my day as well as making me the envy of Danette and my "cool" friends.

High praise indeed! Thank you 🙏
— Liz Phair (@PhizLair) March 24, 2020

To celebrate the book as well as Women's History Month, I decided to post about this lovely video I found on YouTube. There are many Liz Phair videos online, but the lo-fi intimacy of this set (13 songs, limited instrumentation) shot in a record store some 17 years ago seemed to capture the spirit of "Horror Stories" better than a professionally shot video. The video doesn't provide a set list, but it's: