The Metro’s sound system was booming out Elton John’s “The Bitch Is Back” when Liz Phair and her band took the stage Saturday night. It seemed like a tongue-in-cheek acknowledgment of the backlash that’s followed her sudden celebrity. If fans came to see her shine, detractors came to see her fail. What I saw was something in the middle: an interesting presence who has yet to ignite onstage, an untested singer too often swamped by her own words, but at the heart of it all a gifted songwriter loaded with potential.
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In the tradition of all good rock and roll tunes, Phair at her best writes new songs that have an instant ring of familiarity. Wood was able to punch some of her folky-boned tunes into eloquent garage-rock pieces, but he also knew when to hang back, providing lean layers of instrumentation. “Soap Star Joe” is a fine example, using echoey electric guitar fills and harmonica wails that edge in and out with precision.
Songs like “Glory” and “Dance of the Seven Veils” are lovely folk tunes that eschew the frequently maudlin excess of folk. These cuts, peeled down to voice and guitar, show off Phair’s strong, basic chord structures.
At Metro Phair seemed new to singing, unsure of where her range is; sometimes her low voice dipped well below the mix, murky and undefined. But her delivery reveals that she’s hunting up inventive ways to challenge her melodies. Now it’s just a matter of pushing her pipes up to the same level.
But Phair’s only beginning her rock and roll journey. That she’s doing it as a headliner at the Metro instead of in a Tuesday-night death slot at some local dive is the root of the backlash against her. Most other bands come into success, if they come into it at all, with gigs under their belt, hard-core rehearsal time logged, stage personas already solidified, Liz Phair, on the other hand, is growing up in public. Under the spotlight it’s hard to hide the flaws. Time, however, can change lots of things. And time, this time, is on her side.
