Image by Karen Sterling
Liz Phair unifies emotional crowd at NYC Guyville show
June 25, 2008
By Kristyn Pomranz
Published: June 28th, 2008 | 2:15pm
The Hiro Ballroom was packed with people who never said nothin’. People who can’t fly into Chicago at night without pretending they are in a Galaxie 500 video. People who finally found that fuck-and-runs could be shameless. It felt downright illegal to not be sporting flannel and smoking a Camel.
The 15th anniversary re-release of Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville begot a sold-out four-show tour wherein Phair pledged to play the revolutionary album straight through. For Phairphiles like myself, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. After all, this is the album that awoke a generation, defined our adolescence, and granted women musical, sexual, and alternative freedoms.
Much like any other show, fans elbowed and wrested other fans, desperate to be toe-to-stage in proximitic proof that they were the most ardent Exile in Guyville devotee. But unlike any other show, when Phair took center stage and stood 6’1”, the infighting ceased and every pair of lips in the room placed the same bet: “…you fall in bed too easily.”
It has long been discussed that Exile in Guyville is an album of awakening, and the audience’s emotional investment was palpable. Every fan knew every lyric, and the visceral responses were strong and steady. For 18 songs straight, the crowd was unified, exhibiting an intangible respect for both the artist herself and the audience members she had so intrinsically affected.
Fifteen years after the fact, Phair still looked exactly like her famous Rolling Stone cover: Lithe and lean, cool as a blowjob queen. But within the embrace of these rabid fans, her cool melted to warmth; she appeared overwhelmed, undisguisably grateful. When one fan screamed out, “We love you, Liz!” she released a quivered laugh and sarcastically replied, “No. No. I don’t feel loved at all right now.”
But for all of Phair’s notorious stage fright, she remained surprisingly staid. It wasn’t until the encore that her confidence rattled. Between post-Exile classics “Chopsticks” and “Polyester Bride,” she debuted a promising new song that spouted her characteristically murky lyrics and lo-fi sensibilities. Liz, we love you. Just take a deep breath and count back from 10, and you’ll be more than all right.
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Photos from Liz Phair's June 26, 2008, show at Hiro Ballroom
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