A few months ago, Colleen's friend alerted us to a new tour Alanis was embarking on. A tour that would take her to smaller, more intimate theaters, a few of which were in New Jersey. After some back and forth in my own mind, I decided to purchase tickets for the Red Bank event. At the time, Colleen made sure to tell me on more than one occasion to make sure I had a backup plan in case she couldn't make it. (For those reading this who do not really know me, my wife has been chronically ill for three years now). Being the procrastinator that I am (and secretly praying she would be OK to go), I didn't make those backup plans. I just rolled with it, figuring that everything would work out in the end. Of course, Colleen would have a miserable health day, which made me have to think about whether I would go at it alone or swallow the price of both tickets. As of 6:00PM, I still hadn't made up my mind, but my wife convinced me I must go, so I did. Thankfully, Red Bank is only 40 minutes from here.
After typing the address into my GPS and securing my tickets, I began my journey, with the fear hanging over me that I would either not find the place or I would get caught in one of the fierce thunderstorms being predicted for the area. I found the place just fine, but given that I know little about Red Bank, I didn't realize the theater was smack in the middle of a main road, with no parking other than for those who get there 150 hours or so before the concert. Anyone who knows me will tell you that this is the kind of thing that flusters me: Where the heck do I park, and will I even remember where I parked if I find a spot? I literally drove around for at least a half an hour, with the concert time quickly approaching. At one point, I saw signs for Route 35 and almost jumped on it to come home instead of continuously driving around in circles aimlessly. Eventually, I saw a group of cars driving slowly towards some side road, and decided to follow them. They could have been leading me to Charles Manson's NJ Chapter for all I knew, but I didn't care. Death by trying to find a parking spot at an Alanis concert would be strangely poetic for me. However, they were heading towards the train station parking lot, which offered free Sunday parking for people who likely are just as clueless as I am. The parking lot was actually only two blocks from the theater. I had driven around so much that I thought I must be 15 miles away.
Of course, it did dawn on me as I was walking towards the venue just how many males were going to this concert alone. I figured I likely was the only one, but at least I wasn't at a New Kids on the Block or Backstreet Boys show. During the concert, a guy in the row in front of me was singing along to every song. At the end of the show, I noticed a high school aged boy get up and give a standing ovation. The ratio of estrogen to testosterone was high, don't get me wrong. But I was a bit surprised to see so many men there who weren't just dragged there by their wives or girlfriends. Also, since Alanis is not exactly an artist who is often in the spotlight, the youth of the crowd also surprised me. I am sure the majority of the crowd was the 35-45 demographic, but college aged kids singing along to her stuff did still surprise me. (Note that I sang along to nothing; nobody but America's worst criminals deserve to be subject to that torture...oh, and also my sweet wife who has to listen to it during my nightly exercise bike rides)
The tour is her Intimate and Acoustic tour, and it definitely lives up to that name. The theater was relatively small without a bad seat in the house. A person shouting from the top was just as easily heard by Alanis as a person in the front row. It began with a performance by Lynx, who is a pretty good leadin for Alanis. She is also a singer-songwriter type, but has more of a "folky" (not a word anywhere else but Words with Friends) vibe about her. Although her singing came over loud and clear, you could barely understand her when she talked. I felt like I was sitting in Charlie Brown's classroom.
It look a long time for Alanis to hit the stage when Lynx was done. I figured that if she arrived there not long before me, that she too was driving around town looking for a parking spot. She didn't actually officially start until around 9:15pm or so, which was about 45 minutes or so after Lynx finished her performance. It didn't really matter, as she was on stage beyond 11:00pm.
The setting was pretty cool: It was Alanis perched up in this high chair with two guitar players on either side of her. That was it: The entire performance was going to be all about her voice. (and occasional harmonica playing). No jumping around, no fires blowing up into the sky, and no microphone laced with auto tune buttons. As I was listening to her, you couldn't help but think how impossible it would be for most of today's "artists" to pull something like this off. She didn't dress like a tramp, didn't wear crazy makeup, didn't rely on live animals, and there wasn't a swing to be found for her to fly off of. One has to wonder how a Kesha, a JLo, or a Demi Lovato would even attempt such a thing; of course, they wouldn't. Because they can't. Katy Perry? There is a reason why her concerts get rave reviews for being spectacles over pure singing displays. But hey, find me one person who doesn't get at least one Katy Perry song stuck in their heads from time to time. Pure genius. But I digress.
The performance itself consisted of most of Alanis' hits with a few of her more obscure songs mixed in. She sang most of the songs off of Jagged Little Pill, while mixing in songs from her various albums. She did not accept an audience request to sing one of her Canadian pop tart songs, however. She spoke about inspirations behind her songs, engaged with the crowd, and gave off this vibe that she was a struggling artist sitting in a bar looking for tips in a jar (sorry, Billy Joel). Of course, it was much more than that. Alanis' live voice is simply incredible. There is no other way to describe it than that. One of those artists who probably sings live even better than she does on a radio-packaged tune. She put herself out there without any margin for error and delivered to an extreme. I can't imagine anyone coming out of this show without the impression that they saw something truly special...even if they aren't fans of Alanis overall. (The horrors!)
I am far from a music critic since my musical taste is very much limited. To be exact, perhaps I am a bit weird as I tend to gravitate towards the female singer-songwriter types who often are writing autobiographical songs from a female perspective. Now that I type that out, I must wonder what is wrong with me. The bottom line is that this performance gets a huge thumbs up, and I am happy to say that not only did I find my car after the concert, I was able to rush home before the storms I was fearing actually hit.
The set list,and I am doing this from memory....so something may be left out:
You Learn
You Oughta Know
Hand in my Pocket
Hand in my Pocket
Right Through You
Head over Feet
Head over Feet
All I Really Want
Mary Jane
Not the Doctor
Ironic
Ironic
Thank You
So Pure
Hands Clean
Everything
Guardian
Havoc
Havoc
Uninvited
