Tuesday, June 24-- Liz Phair

Last night I went to the Liz Phair show at the Vic. Let me start at the beginning.

I wasn't really a Liz Phair fan. When she came out w/ her debut album in 1993, I was singing "Brown Eyed Girl" at the top of my lungs in the Tower taproom. But she's a Chicago native (tony North Shore Winnetka to be precise. She could be in a John Hughes movie.) and people here really love her. When I finally decided to see what the big deal was she had gotten pretty pop-y. "Why Can't I?" is fine enough, but not really all that compelling. So when Tim asked me if I liked Liz Phair, I was like, "Eh." This was dumbfounding to him. I'm not sure how to convey to you guys what a huge Liz Phair fan Tim is. He loves her. She's in his Top 5. He insisted that I listen to all of "Exile in Guyville" right then and there-- even though it was 2 am and I was already beat. But his excitement was contagious and I listened to it and it was pretty f-in' cool. So when they announced that they were re-releasing "Exile in Guyville" and she was singing all of it at the Vic, he got 4 tickets immediately. And that brings us to last night.

Last night we met Tim's sister and her friend at a bar where she used to work which was down the street from the theater. I have to confess that I was pretty nervous about meeting his sister. And she confirmed all my fears-- she's super cute, skinny, young, etc. And even worse-- super nice. Same with her friend. These are the girls that I irrationally hate from afar at bars in Lincoln Park, who make me feel insecure about every not quite right part of me. But whatever-- those are my issues. They were really nice and dinner was great. We were off to a good start.

We head over to the Vic and Miss Phair comes out pretty much on time which was shocking to me. And I have to say-- that lady is hot. I get why she's on Tim's top 5. She was wearing these short shorts with high high heels and this tiny vest that showed part of her bra. She was smokin'. No wonder there were so many guys and lesbians in the audience. And her performance did not disappoint. It is not an exaggeration to say that Tim sang every lyric of every song. He played air guitar/keyboard/bass/drums. He was like a kid in a candy store. The only part that broke his heart a little was when she expressed ambivalence about the Cubs & Sox. Tim is die hard Sox so that was a disappointment. But come on, she's a girl from the North Shore. I was not quite as indoctrinated as the rest of the crowd, but I still thought it was an awesome show. And the funniest part was that she finished playing the album, went offstage, the house lights came on and the crowd wouldn't relent. They turned the house lights back off (which I'm not sure I've ever seen) and she came back on. She hadn't rehearsed an encore and let us know it. She forgot the words to one of her songs at one point and the crowd just sang it for her. It was actually pretty cool. Very fun. An awesome Tues. night.

But after 2 concerts on 2 consecutive school nights, I'm ready for an evening doing laundry and tv. Plus I've got to rest up for Kim's visit this weekend and the Stevie Wonder concert!