Alanis lacks lustre in Birmingham - Alanis Morissette Live Review - 18 Jun 2008

Alanis lacks lustre in Birmingham - Alanis Morissette Live Review - 18 Jun 2008

Alanis Morissette: link

Live Review

Now I have to say that I have been a fan for quite some time and have several of her albums, including her latest, but the vocal sound quality last night was just poor. The systems made Alanis sound like a wailing cat and rendered the lyrics practically incoherent. However, this wasn't the only problem. Apart from a late arrival on stage that had the audience shouting, whistling and even booing before she came out, Alanis then simply failed to engage with the audience.

When singing with guitar in hand, she stared at a spot on the ceiling, making no eye contact with the audience at all. When singing without her instrument, she plodded forwards and backwards to alternate corners of the stage, again looking skyward like a relentless metronome.

The only high spot of the half a performance that I stuck around for was when the audience engaged Alanis by singing 'Hand in My Pocket' more coherently and louder than herself. Looking around me I could see no-one dancing and few people even tapping their feet (though that could have been because they were stuck to the carpet), which meant that the view, which we accept is normally restricted at a concert anyway was made worse by the static heads of the audience. At least when people are swaying or dancing you get to see something, and when you did find a gap to glimpse through, it was quickly filled with the rear view of a mobile phone being held in the air in an attempt to see something of the performance. And so, even in quite an intimate venue, I found myself watching most of the half concert through the LCD screens of the phones of the people in front of me.

To say it was disappointing would be the best I could muster.

Stephen Moylan

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