Less than sparkling review from Tuesday's show. Why don't girls like Liz?

*********************************************************
Phair's acoustic show veers from sharp to shallow

By Joan Anderman, Globe Staff | July 27, 2005

With her alt-rock goddess years a distant shimmer, a slick pop experiment tucked safely back in 2003, and a new album rolling out in October, Liz Phair is going where so many muddled mid-life rock 'n' roll souls have found themselves: on an acoustic tour.

She opened her three-week string of shows last night for a sold-out crowd at the Paradise. They arrived infatuated and left even more in love. There is something wildly appealing about Liz Phair, a plain-spoken, unapologetic attitude toward everything from her choice in music to her choice in men that managed to glue this set together.

And that was no easy task. It's hard to remember a set that toggled so vividly between brilliant and insipid. Backed by a guitarist and harmony singer who seemed to be working out vocal parts on the fly, Phair reached deep into the endlessly clever, frank collection of gems from her 1993 debut ''Exile in Guyville," offering stripped renditions of ''6'1," ''Soap Star Joe," ''Mesmerizing," ''Divorce Song," and ''Girls Girls Girls." She brazenly plopped them toe-to-toe with the factory-assembled confections from her recent self-titled album, a major play for Top 40 chart action. The pop project -- which seemed like a weirdly righteous and unabashed move at the time -- suffered for the close proximity.

''Extraordinary" wasn't. ''Why Can't I," a fine radio anthem, just sounded silly on the heels of ''Supernova." When Phair, barefoot and blond-locked, struck a vixen pose while attacking the inane chorus of ''Rock Me," it was painful to watch. Listening wasn't much easier, as Phair bullied her voice into high, hook-drenched neighborhoods where she has no artistic business.

Still, her sense of entitlement was contagious. The four new songs Phair previewed -- especially the title track, ''Somebody's Miracle" -- were in a classic, folk-rock mold that suited her off-kilter voice and contemplative time of life.

Joan Anderman can be reached at anderman@globe.com
************************************************************

I wonder what other songs were previewed. Apparently this reviewer who didn't like the self-titled sort of liked them so that gives me some hope.

I've seen various reports on what she played. She did "Lost Tonight," and "Everything To Me" form the new album plus another new song that reportedly didn't make the final cut. She took requests from the audience and is doing a "challenge" song each night. Last night's was "Soap Star Joe." She also did "Good Love Never Dies" and "Girls! Girls! Girls!" She asked the audience if they'd rather hear "Wild Thing" or "Jeremy Engle" and they voted for "Wild Thing" (Why? Why? Why?).

Hopefully someone comes back with a report from tonight's show.

Anyone who is going to Philly, we're chanting for "Jeremy Engle" damnit!

Wow, a challenge song? I didn't think she could remember how to play anything.

I'll be there at the first Philly show (Friday? I think), and I am SO DEFINITELY gonna be barking out my request for "jeremy Engle." and I mean BARKING.

Good to know I won't be the only one... maybe not barking, but...

Liz wrote a song about it.

Here's another review, this time from the Boston Herald (posted on the Mesmerizing website's Updates page):

Dumbed-down Liz? It's just not Phair
By Brett Milano
Thursday, July 28, 2005

Someday, indie-rock historians will have a field day with Liz Phair. How many other artists have won a cult following for their sharp and daring songwriting, then chucked it all for fizzy teen pop? For that matter, how many artists in their late 30s are still trying to sound like mall kids?

At a sold-out acoustic show at the Paradise on Tuesday, Phair offered equal amounts of the old, smart Liz and the new, shallow Liz. But it was clear she's simply traded one audience for another. When she did songs from her cult-classic debut, Exile in Guyville, hoots and hollers went up in the crowd after every sexual reference, something that never happened in her more sophisticated indie days. During the old "Stratford on Guy", she dropped the name of the legendary Boston underground band Galaxie 500 and the reference went by with no recognition whatsoever.

Once shy and charming onstage, Phair now comes off as overly giggly, greeting the crowd with, "You guys are awesome!" When someone shouted a request, she kept claiming to have forgotten songs she wrote only a few years ago.

Unfortunately, she didn't forget the recent single "Rock Me", with its cringe-inducing line, "I'm starting to think that young guys rule."

And yes, we did notice her low-cut blouse and hiked-up skirt, even before she made the point of saying, "I feel like I'm flashing everybody in the front."

The short acoustic tour is a promo for an upcoming album, Somebody's Miracle, which is being promoted as her return to grownup songwriting (after her self-titled, teen-slanted album from two years ago). But the four new songs she played on Monday didn't sound very promising. They're grownup all right, but in a bland easy-listening way; with cliched lyrics along the lines of "Stand by me and catch me when I fall, baby." Though Phair apparently wrote them herself, they were pure assembly-line pop.

Scattered through the set were reminders of her more creative days, like the wry opener "Polyester Bride" and mid-'90s alternative hit "Supernova". Phair remains a terrific singer, and she comes off as both sexier and more appealing when she stops trying so hard. The evening proved that she at least had something worth selling before she sold out.