FLAWLESS LITTLE PILL

She stepped onto a dark stage and flicked on a table lamp. Against the backdrop of a standing ovation, Alanis opened with an a capella version of “Your House.” Her voice was spot-on. The melody was beautiful, haunting, and ‘breathy.’ I couldn’t even see her. All I could see was the dimly lit lamp and the little end table it was perched on. She closed the song to a standing 'O' and segued right into her next song.

The curtain was raised and disclosed her true set. It looked like an everyday living room complete with couches, love seats, chairs, and pictures on walls. Two large video screens accompanied the setting along with her 5-piece band, which included two acoustic guitarists, a bass player, keyboardist, drummer, and a percussionist. The spotlights were on her now. She looked good. Smiling. Happy. She wore what appeared to be a knitted, green-striped, sleeveless dress over black or brown leather pants. Gone was the short-cropped hair seen on her recent video “Everything.” It now fell just short of shoulder-length.

The largely young, female audience began singing “You Learn” in unison with her, “I, recommend getting your heart trampled on to anyone, yeah. I, recommend walking around naked in your living room, yeah. Swallow it down, what a jagged little pill…”

And this was the pattern throughout the 90-minute set. I felt like I was sitting in the audience of an MTV Unplugged concert. I can’t emphasize enough how on key she was. She hit all the high registers flawlessly. Songs like “Perfect” and “Mary Jane” made me shut my eyes. They soothed me. So melodic.

Alanis joked about her perception of being angry 24/7 and then proceeded to demonstrate it when she sang “Forgiven.” Her interaction with the crowd was more thank you-type than storytelling. She said she was enjoying her 10-year celebration of the Grammy-winning CD. She told us she would intersperse a few meaningful non-pill songs throughout the set. She captured the audience more with her acoustic versions of every song on the Jagged Little Pill CD. The lighting and videos changed to accompany the songs. Her encore performance of “You Outta Know” looked like it was sang in hell. The flames on the video screens along with the orange and yellow-colored lighting helped emphasize the anger as she sang it. The crowd sang along word-for-word during the song and during the familiar “Ironic.”

My only disappointment was that she didn’t sing anything from her newest CD So-Called Chaos and in particular, “Everything.” Still, I certainly can’t complain. What a truly wonderful concert it was. Believe me, I’d tell you if it wasn’t. I’m paying a pretty penny for these concerts, and I’d definitely voice my opinion if these concerts I’m seeing aren’t any good. It’s concerts like these I cherish and just take everything in and realize how special these moments truly are. “Priceless,” as the commercial says.

Note: programming reminder, you can see Alanis sing live on VH1 on June 30th.