Alanis Morissette Shows Kinder, Gentler Side Onstage
Once angst-filled singer/songwriter puts her rage
aside during live performance in Europe.
Contributing Editor Gianni Sibilla reports:
MILAN, Italy -- This was a new Alanis Morissette.
Not only in song and in her wardrobe, but in her essence.
"Thank You India," sang the young singer/songwriter in the first
encore of Wednesday's concert here at the Forum arena.
The line, included in "Thank U" (RealAudio excerpt), from last
year's Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, came toward the
end of an almost two-hour show. It was an expression of
gratitude to the land where she found inner peace.
And where she lost the rage that characterized much of her music.
Dressed in an oriental red dress and wandering on a stage backed by
Kashmir-inspired sheeting and an enormous grate that opened as if to the
door of a temple, Morissette (born Nadine Morissette) showed a kinder,
gentler side. The anger of such songs as "You Oughta Know"
was gone. Instead, she performed a slow, balladic version of the hit
single from 1995's multimillion selling Jagged Little Pill.
Driven by bassist Chris Chaney's plodding rhythm, there was little
need for guitarists Joel Shearer and Nick Lashley.
Morissette performed the second date of the Italian leg of her
six-week European tour with the same musicians she recruited to
record Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (1998). The band,
which also included drummer Gary Novak and keyboardist
Deron Johnson, reproduced the mix of rock and sampled
beats that launched the former teen idol to worldwide fame.
But Morissette alone was the protagonist of
the show. While the band remained in
shadow, the singer stood in the glare of nine spotlights. She
darted across the big stage and played acoustic and electric
guitars and even a flute on 1998's "That I Would Be Good."
Preceded by mantra-like music, she took the stage and
launched into "Baba." "How soon will I be Holy?/ How much will
this cost, guru?/ How much longer 'til you completely absolve
me?" she sang, addressing the struggle of finding spiritual
peace.
The sold-out crowd responded enthusiastically, especially to
such older hits as "Ironic" (RealAudio excerpt) or "You
Learn," from Jagged Little Pill.
Some clearly preferred the old, more energetic Morissette.
"She is clearly a great performer and she has a great voice. But
she looked too detached," Barbara Gregori, 23, said. "She
almost didn't talk to the crowd, despite being so communicative
in her songs."
The show closed on an intimate, spiritual note. When
Morissette performed "Forgiven," a song from Jagged Little Pill
about her Catholic education, the grated door opened to unveil
a large screen that displayed the word "God" in different
languages.
Before the second encore, the screen showed a clip from the
music video for a recent single, "Unsent" (RealAudio
excerpt), directed by Morissette. Those images showed the
songwriter speaking to past lovers.
The band gathered at the front of the stage to close the show
with an acoustic performance that included "Unsent," the new
single "So Pure" (RealAudio excerpt) and 1995's "Head Over
Feet."
"In some ways, it's a great sign of artistic maturity for a young
artist who has only [released] two albums [outside her native
Canada], that she is already reinventing her songs in the live
performance," Gregori said.
The singer/songwriter will close her European tour in
Switzerland, where she will perform at the Montreux Jazz
Festival in mid-July. She will then move to the U.S., where she
has two appearances with acoustic rocker Dave Matthews in
Denver and plans to perform at the Woodstock Festival in
Rome, N.Y., as well.
She will kick off her much-anticipated five-week tour with piano
songstress Tori Amos in mid-August.
[ Thurs., June 24, 1999 6:21 PM EDT ]
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