The specifics:

Moderator:
• Jim Henke: chief curator, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum

Panelists:
• Sarah Baer: Sponsorship/Marketing, 4fini Inc
• Jenny Eliscu: Contributor, Rolling Stone; Host, Sirius XM; A&R, Canvasback Music
• Liz Phair: Grammy-nominated Recording Artist
• Maggie Vail: Vice President, Kill Rock Stars record label

The panel is set for Friday, March 18th from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.

• Sunday, March 13, 2011 - The Coach House, San Juan Capistrano, CA

• Wednesday, March 16, 2011 - Troubadour, Los Angeles, CA

The time / date / venue of Liz's appearance at South by Southwest 2011 is subject to change (in fact, there is currently no information regarding the exact time / date / location of Liz's SXSW appearance currently on the site).

• Thursday, March 17, 2011 - Creekside Executive Meeting Center at Hilton Garden Inn, Austin, TX
• Thursday, March 17, 2011 - Granada Theater, Dallas, TX

Funniest Song
Liz Phair's mock record-industry conversation in "U Hate It". I am sufficiently juvenile to find the genius/peenius rhyme funny, and so, I guess, does Phair, so I consider myself in excellent company there. The funniest moment of the year involved reupholstering. That howling sound you heard across the sky on release day was America getting its first listen to "Blame Game". Or maybe it was just me. I'm pretty sure I woke up most of Harsimus Cove.

You can read the rest of Tris McCall's ballot at the New Jersey Star-Ledger.

But I have always had a big chip on my shoulder whenever I read articles, sometimes I get really incensed when they say things like women have no sex-drive or that women don't think about sex or [in a mocking authoritarian voice] "men think about sex every 16 seconds" and blah blah blah blah. I can tell you what happened. Girls were like boy-crazy up until boys starting going after them. You know what I mean? So they had like possibly early traumatic experiences. Girls could think of nothing else. Girls would get together and just be like "yada yada yada... this is what you do to him and this is how you do it if you do it." It was something that I felt like was shut down in girls and women that I refused to let be shut down so I fought for it. I had lots of issues growing up myself. I felt constantly like boys were coming after me. You know there was some traumatic stuff growing up. I wouldn't say that any of it was assaultive but I always felt like I was a target, so I fought for the right to be a sex subject rather than a sex object. Does that make sense?

You can read the rest of the interview at Honest Tune.

The best thing about Liz Phair at the Fine Line was the loving presentation of these old songs, how there was no attempt to rearrange or polish, to embellish (yes, for an album of such variety, it is quite sparsely orchestrated), to question their validity, to reimagine them from the perspective of 18 years older. The slippery, seductive shimmer of Phair's guitar remained, most beguilingly on "Divorce Song", and there also were those deep-voiced declarations of non-love, made even more intimidating by Phair's by-now effortless stage presence. Earlier, "6'1"", its guitars harder, entering the fray with the force of something new, their timbre and rhythm immediately distinctive, inaugurated a world of amateur-genius-cool as tantalizingly as "I Will Dare", even still.

You can read the rest of the review plus view photos of Liz from the show (taken by Kathy Easthagen) here.

South by Southwest 2011 will be held March 16 through 20 in Austin, Texas.

I'll try and get an official confirmation from Liz...

Standing in the confines of Turner Hall, a modest gathering of mid-lifer's milled about until Liz Phair took the stage at about half past nine. The show was essentially mailed in. Phair tapped her hits and treated us with newer visions from her latest release Funstyle in "Oh Bangladesh" and "And He Slayed Her", but by and large delivered a rather stoical performance.

You can read the rest of the review plus view photos of Liz from the show (also taken by Gypsy Davey) here.

Jeremy Engle

She brought it back to the basics live, and made sure to choose a set list that worked with the setting. Obviously, I have a soft spot for the Pop side of Liz Phair, no matter how frowned upon it is by the cool crowd. I love how she goes with her instincts and trusts her fans to believe in her decisions. If some fall off the Phair-Train in the process – so be it. The chick is classy and secure, as a woman should be. She can do it all.

You can read the rest of the interview and review plus view photos of Liz from the show (also taken by Chrystal Heidemann) at YouTellConcerts.

After graciously exchanging several glances with the audience, she and her touring trio launched into the first single, "Supernova" from her second album, Whip Smart. The rocking number set the pace for the night and the crowd of admirers immediately turned into a backing choral group, lyric for lyric - a trend that would continue for the duration of the evening. The tune was also a great opener because it immediately let the crowd know that they would receive a catalogue-spanning performance as opposed to a recitation of the album that the tour was supporting, Funstyle. This is not to say that she did not play songs from the album, or that doing so was a bad thing. Funstyle, while different from typical Phair fare, is actually quite good and is obviously something that Liz is quite proud of - to the point that she departed from Capitol Records to make it. But, when an album in a musical career makes into Rolling Stone's top 500 most important albums of all time as her debut Exile in Guyville did, an audience is going to require those numbers to be satiated. This evening, we would see Liz proudly play material from all of the eras that earned her aforementioned critic-given nicknames, from "Never Said" and "Divorce Song" to "Why Can't I?" and "Extraordinary."

You can read the rest of the review and view photos of Liz from the show (also taken by David Shehi) here.

And He Slayed Her / Nashville (with fan reviews)

Supernova
Nashville

Liz whipped through 18 songs in less than 90 minutes. (In fact, the set list was identical to the one she played in her hometown of Chicago the week before, save a song or two.) True to her word on Tuesday, she played material from all of her albums except Somebody's Miracle.

Here's an excerpt from the interview (discussing jamming with Dave Matthews):

"I just think he is the most inspiring person. I mean, he's going to hate that I'm saying this because... he would not like to be thought of as some pillar of something or other, you know? But I've never met anybody cooler in the music world, and he inspires me. His whole operation, his attitude, his wife, that family, that band, the whole thing – I'm completely infatuated with it... Yeah, we got together – like, I piggybacked on his personal recording sessions, and those are really just kind of us jamming together with the people that were around us. It was a really great and spontaneous. He's got great instincts. I love his guitar playing, love his melodic sense. And when you meet someone who’s also an artist and you really like each other, you just naturally want to create something together. It's just like the next natural step. So it was really rewarding to do that with him."

You can read the rest of the interview and review plus view photos of Liz from the show (taken by Vanessa Valentine) at AltDaily.

Through myriad guitar changes and a Guyville-heavy set, Phair had the crowd eating out of her hand — from the googly-eyed guys up front who couldn't take their eyes off her to the line of young women dancing near the back. Phair, in a sparkly one-sleeved dress, looked happy and well-adjusted, and in a weird way, just her being there made us feel sort of happy and well-adjusted, too. Nevermind that Guyville got us through (and probably led us straight into) some dark times — it was a veritable party in the U.S.A., and it felt damn good.

You can read the rest of the review here and view photos of Liz from the show (taken by Jillian Arciero) here.

H.W.C.

Never Said

Another video from Atlanta / Variety Playhouse (courtesy of FSThomas):

H.W.C.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

• Supernova
• 6'1"
• Help Me Mary
• Divorce Song
• May Queen
• Never Said
• Nashville
• And He Slayed Her
• Polyester Bride
• Flower
• Mesmerizing
• Oh, Bangladesh
• Extraordinary
• Stratford-on-Guy
• Fuck and Run
• Perfect World

Encore:
• Soap Star Joe
• Uncle Alvarez
• Why Can't I?
• Johnny Feelgood

Supernova
6'1"
Help Me Mary
Divorce Song
May Queen
Never Said
Nashville
Flower

Anyone have video of Liz performing "Jeremy Engle"?

Six videos from Norfolk / The NorVa (courtesy of Joe Richard / worst984):

Supernova
Help Me Mary
Polyester Bride
Mesmerizing
Extraordinary
Fuck And Run

During the show, I found myself summarizing Phair's set list to my friend as a chronology of selling-out. "Chopsticks": “Oh this is a good one, this is still pre-sellout." "Polyester Bride": "This one's halfway to sellout." "Extraordinary": "This is the climax of sellout." There was no booing, as I had witnessed at a 2003 show right after the release of Phair's self-titled, Matrix-produced pop album. This time there was just a lot of cringing, like when someone mockingly shouted: "You’re really hot!" (Phair was wearing a purple tube dress and a choker.) She joked in response, "Thanks. I paid her."

You can read the rest of the review plus view photos of Liz from the show (taken by Paul Wagtouicz) here (alternate link here).

First of all the set list was amazing. She opened with "Supernova" from Whipsmart and closed with "Fuck And Run" from Exile in Guyville. In between she played songs from both of these albums, several from whitechocolatespaceegg, and a sprinkling of some new ones. I've heard that her latest release, Funstyle, returns a bit to her earlier, indie sound. I look forward to listening to this one and the others I missed while I was busy being self-righteous. Second, she and her band sounded incredible. I was lucky enough to be right up front, and I could tell they were having a blast, too. Finally, it was such a gift to be listening to that music as a new incarnation of myself. I could offer my angsty, serious, teenage self total love and contentment from her grown-up counterpart.

You can read the rest of the review plus view photos of Liz from the show (also taken by Elizabeth Koke) at Elizabeth Koke's blog.

Supernova
Flower

Five videos from Baltimore / Rams Head Live (courtesy of vwall10411):

Supernova / 6'1"
And He Slayed Her / Polyester Bride
Extraordinary / Stratford-On-Guy
Uncle Alvarez
Why Can't I? / Johnny Feelgood

Five more videos from Baltimore / Rams Head Live (courtesy of MsTowanda73):

May Queen
Cinco De Mayo
Stratford-On-Guy
Fuck And Run
Uncle Alvarez

Anyone have the setlists from either of these shows?

Nashville Cream: That's a really good point. That book’s been called a drug memoir a lot, almost more than anything else. And you’ve been pretty public about your dealings with drugs and smoking too much pot when you were younger. Is that something you feel comfortable talking about?

Liz Phair: Yeah, sure. I mean, drugs are fun. They are hands-down a great way to escape reality. My son asks about drugs and I tell him, yeah they're fun, but they hurt you. For me, in my life, the lesson I learned about it is: If you don't live sober enough to become in enough pain, you can just mask everything and you'll never actually achieve happiness. You never learn how to deal. For me it was just about having more fun to live in an escapist fantasy than it is to actually deal with life. You know, Keith, that's not an issue for him. There is nothing in that book about that. I mean I can't get over the fact that he's just devoid of that struggle, that internal dialogue of should I or shouldn't I? And it just blows my mind! I felt like I was watching an alien! I was both jealous, and amazed, and inspired. I was like, "I should be doing more drugs!" I really felt like we should all read this book and get a little more rock 'n' roll ourselves. We've gone too far. Life can be a little more magical than we're living it right now.

You can read the rest of the interview at Nashville Cream / Nashville Scene.

As we drive north on Damen, Phair gets visibly frustrated by the line of cars standing still at a stop light. She cruises by them, fiddling with the buttons on the stereo to change it from the classical music station her mother had been listening to the day before. "This is probably super illegal, but I don't care," she says as she drives in the bike lane, "I'm an aggressive driver. I'm a driver. Everyone in LA is a commuter, and they're all ten-and-two." She slams her hands at the DMV-recommended spots on the steering wheel. "These people are my enemies," she says while gripping the wheel and hunching forward in her seat. "Are you ten-and-two?" I laugh a little nervously, admitting that I didn't have a car while I lived in Chicago, letting myself off the hook.

You can read the rest of the interview at BlackBook.

"If they're dismissing it because it's not an 'important' work that is going to change anything, well, I did call it Funstyle," she says with a laugh. "Not everything you do has to have the same implication, or even the same impact." You can almost hear her shake her head as she says, "I think people are still waiting for me to somehow save the world."

You can read the rest of the interview at Nashville Scene (alternate link here).

"When I'm touring, I force my son to send me his homework so I can help him out. He's not necessarily happy about that, but when I saw his French and English grades, it wasn't open for debate," she said, and then laughed. "But even though he still needs me, he's 14, and not nearly as needy as a 3- or 7-year-old, so I may start putting out more music."

You can read the rest of the interview at the The Virginian-Pilot.

One advantage, though, of drawing from the same small pool of songs is that the band sounded at least as good, maybe even better -- not only do they sound tighter than her previous backing bands (that I've seen, anyway), but they sound like a band that's been playing these songs for awhile, and has found new ways to tweak the guitar lines or extend intros and outros a little. Ditto Liz's singing and phrasing -- everything felt just a little looser and even more confident than the last show. Technically, this set may have been better than last time, with "Uncle Alvarez" and "Cinco de Mayo" added in. But I'd love it if Liz Phair were the kind of artist I could go see more than once per tour and get something more than the same set with minor improvements.

You can read the rest of the review here.

The setlist:

• Supernova
• 6'1"
• Help Me Mary
• Divorce Song
• May Queen
• Never Said
• Nashville
• Uncle Alvarez
• And He Slayed Her
• Polyester Bride
• Perfect World
• Flower
• Mesmerizing
• Oh, Bangladesh
• Extraordinary
• Stratford-on-Guy
• Fuck and Run

Encore:
• Cinco de Mayo
• Jeremy Engle
• Soap Star Joe
• Johnny Feelgood

Phair kicked off the show with her most mainstream hit, 1995's Grammy-nominated "Supernova". She and her three bandmates squarely focused on Phair's 1993-98 heyday to the satisfaction of a crowd that kept shouting out song requests, lyrics and more.

"Get rid of the poison!" a male fan yelled for an unspecified reason. Phair's drummer didn't miss a beat, responding with the rapid tapping from "Poison" by Bell Biv DeVoe, which Phair's lead guitarist followed with the riff from Poison's "Talk Dirty to Me".

You can read the rest of the review plus view a photo of Liz from the show here.

What we didn't expect from one of the queens of indie-rock was football talk, but she went into right away. Recovering from a "depressing" Sunday watching her Bears with her dad, the Chicago native said, "You better kick the Packers' ass for me."

You can read the rest of the review plus view a photo of Liz from the show (taken by Hugh Twyman) here.

Happily, Phair made nearly all the right choices. Opening with "Supernova", the winning single from 1994's Whip-Smart, it was immediately clear that her unsteady showmanship was a thing of the past. Phair's voice was surprisingly strong and assured, and she exuded a bright, confident stage presence that won over an already adoring crowd. A spaced-out, slightly stoned persona produced some charming between-song banter, including a gag from, of all things, Three Amigos! ("Lookuphere, lookuphere!") Of course, it should also be noted that the 43-year-old looked appropriately fetching in skin-tight, low-riding pants, and a barely-there top that offered up more than a generous amount of alt-queen cleavage.

You can read the rest of the review plus view a photo of Liz from the show (taken by CJ Foeckler) here.

Before her fiery version of "Help Me Mary", Phair pointed to various spots in the Metro and reminisced, "I spent a night over there, and I spent a night over there, and I spent a night in the bathroom." Phair may have been mythologizing a bit, but it sounded like a true confession when she admitted that she once "said something really stupid" to a member of Jane's Addiction when that band played Metro back in the day.

You can read the rest of the review plus view a photo from the show (taken by Keith Hale) here.

Her stellar backing band – former Cupcakes' drummer Matt Walker, guitarist Greg Suran, and bassist Solomon Snyder – just joined the tour last week, and were an ideal addition. Together they delivered the strongest performance I've seen of Phair's. No telling where she'll go next, but it may be too soon to write her off.

You can read the rest of the review here.

• Supernova
• 6'1"
• Help Me Mary
• Divorce Song
• May Queen
• Never Said
• Nashville
• And He Slayed Her
• Polyester Bride
• Perfect World
• Mesmerizing
• Oh, Bangladesh
• Extraordinary
• Stratford-On-Guy
• Fuck and Run

Encore:
• Soap Star Joe
• Jeremy Engle (crowd request, performed solo)
• Why Can't I?
• Johnny Feelgood

• Greg Suran (guitar)
• Solomon Snyder (bass)
• Matt Walker (drums)

The trio were in the band Cupcakes (thanks to P. Griffin Baron and Barbara Royal for that information!).

Here is a photo of Liz at the Bluebird Theater in Denver (taken by Shawn Parker) at tehgipster's Flickr account.

Here are some photos of Liz at the Fine Line Music Cafe in Minneapolis (taken by LeAnn Crowe) at technicolor76's Flickr account:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Here is a photo of Liz at the Turner Hall Ballroom in Milwaukee (taken by twojangles) at twojangles's Flickr account.

But on the other hand, she delivered a 90-minute concert of pure rock 'n' roll, opening with "Supernova" from her successful 1994 Whip-Smart album. She sounded great (despite the questionable acoustics in Turner Hall), looked like she was having a blast ("I used to be terrified, but now I really enjoy being here," she said) and proved to be conscious of her predominantly aging hipster fan base by choosing songs, mostly, from her first album, including "6'1"", "Divorce Song", "Mesmerizing" and a ripping set closer of "Fuck and Run".

You can read the rest of the review plus view a photo from the show (taken by Royal Bonde-Griggs) here.

She and the band pushed toward vocal and musical clarity as the night progressed, especially when they reached for the alcoholically cheerful pop-rock of "Polyester Bride" and the resentfully tender longing of "Perfect World".

You can read the rest of the review here.

Supernova
Help Me Mary
Never Said

One video from Milwaukee / Turner Hall Ballroom (courtesy of tmmartin):

H.W.C.

• Polyester Bride
• Oh, Bangladesh
• Mesmerizing

The most notable item from this program is the changes to her tour band on this leg of the tour:

• Greg Suran (guitar)
• Sol (Solomon) Snyder (bass)
• Matt Walker (drums)

You can hear Liz's segment here.

It must be so gratifying to have all those guys, the ones that could never figure you out, paying money to see you. And it must be extremely gratifying to spit "Soap Star Joe" back at them. While, thankfully, men stop trying to "save" women after we turn 25 or so (I am glad I turned that dating corner!), singing "Check out the thinning hair / Check out the aftershave" still sounds — and still is — extraordinarily nasty.

And following it up with "Johnny Feelgood" gets to the other side of the coin: men are wonderful! And they can be most alluring when they're nasty, too! And I still like the older ones because we are all ageing and this is how it works, as long as they're not talking during a good song! And Liz Phair still rocks!

You can read the rest of the review here.

Phair understandably performed very little from Funstyle — most of its weird studio goofs weren't meant to be recreated live — and even apologized for her inability to pull off "Bollywood" (while sharing an off-the-cuff rendition of its opening lines). She also avoided her biggest hit, "Why Can't I?" — maybe she figured we'd heard it often enough in mid-'00s film trailers. And since Phair's debut, Exile In Guyville, remains the centerpiece of her appeal, she offered up a healthy chunk of its songs last night, wrapping up by inviting a woman from the audience to sing backup on "Flower" (the bit about "get[ting] all wet between my legs").

You can read the rest of the review and see a photo from the show (taken by Lindsey Thomas) here.

"I was using this persona of Mick [Jagger] as if he was this boyfriend that I couldn't understand. It's girl insanity. If you're not a chick, you'll never get it," she says. "I couldn't communicate with this guy that I had a quasi-crush on — who Mick was was kind of who this guy was... Either I was saying 'I totally know what you mean, I feel the same way' or 'you're totally an asshole.'"

You can read the rest of the interview at the Chicago Tribune.

Phair capped the hour-long set with a three-song encore that included the so-so "If I Ever Pay You Back" from her new Funstyle album. Phair and company waved goodbye and stepped offstage; but as half the crowd suited up with hats and coats to venture back out into the crippling cold, the other half greedily cheered and hooted -- they wanted one more song and they got it. Phair and the band reappeared for a rendition of "Flower" with a little help from an audience member pulled from the audience to sing the backing vocals. It was a fun, if slightly sloppy way to end the night.

You can read the rest of the review plus view photos from the show (taken by Tony Nelson) here.

"He [Keith Richards] makes his own rules, something I suffer from too," she said in an interview. "If you have those traits, they'll get you into much trouble, and like my grandmother used to say, you'll always be fighting upstream."

You can read the rest of the interview at the Baltimore Sun.

Musician Liz Phair talks with Mitch Teich about her newest album, unpredictability, motherhood and Keith Richards's memoir. Her newest album is called Funstyle, and is predictably unpredictable. Phair plays tomorrow at Turner Hall Ballroom. She spoke with us from her home in California.

You can hear the Lake Effect Liz interview here.

You know, I have to ask you – you are a New Trier graduate and that high school seems to produce a laundry list of famous names like Ann Margaret, Pete Wentz, Jeremy Piven, Pulitzer nominated Playwright Sarah Ruhl, and so many more. Why do you think that so many of New Trier's graduates are so successful?

Well, I noticed when I went to college, when I went to Oberlin [College] that there was something unique about New Trier where the ethic is work hard/play hard – which grows big personalities. There is a lot of pressure there to achieve. In one sense, you know, you have to be a great athlete, you have to be a great academic, you have to be a great social community organizer or participant. Big, big, big in the pressure achievement thing, but it’s also, big, big, big, in the party have fun, go all the way thing. It's just a balls out environment, which I think kind of makes for big people, you know? I didn't realize how unusual it was until I went to other places.

You can read the rest of the interview at TheMusicDose.com.

What do you look most forward to doing when you come home to Chicago?

I always try to make time to go Wishbone, but never make it. I never have enough time because I do the downtown things with my friends and then go down to where I spent a good couple of years in the Lincoln Park area. I also stay up on the North Shore, see the lake and take a walk with my mom.

You can read the rest of the interview at Chicago RedEye, or pick up a copy if you are in the Chicago area.

"I've turned a corner about my live show," said Phair from Los Angeles before she kicked off an East Coast tour that brings her to the Music Hall of Williamsburg on Jan. 26. "I used to get so stressed out before going out on tour. Now, I'm really enjoying it."

You can read the rest of the interview at The Brooklyn Paper (alternate link here).

"I totally listen to that stuff," she says of the young female artists. "I was just downloading Janelle Monae's 'Tightrope'. I'm loving Katy Perry's slew of hits. Sometimes I like Ke$ha, not sure I always love her. I think I prefer Katy Perry. Even though she appears sunnier, I think she's got more edge, real edge. [Lady] Gaga has the best performance chops of all of them. I'm still a fan of Beyonce, to be honest. If you wanna elect someone to lead the female army, that's the one I'm calling. All the little girls can step down. She's an amazing performer."

You can read the rest of the interview at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

"It was almost like, all of these bitching complaints I had about the industry or points I had," Phair said. "I decided to score my own points."

These points confront issues like ownership and limits to creative expression, frustrations that Phair has certainly encountered in her relationships with various record labels.

"There's a lot of people in the music business, the industry side, that are just constantly packed in this tiny way that reminds me of hamsters or gerbils," Phair said. "No you can’t go down this tube, I'm gonna block you!"

You can read the rest of the interview at the Minnesota Daily.

"I do see a lot of continuity in my songs," Phair explains, "but it is more of a continuity of spirit." To Phair, all of her material is marked by "a strong female point of view," one that has evolved over the years but still serves as "an expression of my individuality." Phair explains that she has mellowed out a bit since her Exile days — particularly when it comes to the opposite sex.

"I had a lot more anger toward men when I was young," Phair admits. And while Phair says she can still get "boy crazy" (her words, not mine), she is now interested in telling stories of women who have "taken their power" and who "aren't going to make it easy" for their partners.

You can read the rest of the interview at Express Milwaukee.

Q. Can there be a Liz Phair album other than Guyville, Part 2 that will please the masses?

LP: Uh, no? To do Guyville 2 because I'm supposed to do it or because it's the only thing people like feels -- meh. I'm writing stuff now that's really touching me, some stuff that's actually made me weep. I don't know if it's Guyville 2, but it's off-kilter and very heartfelt and very personal, directed at a single person. It feels authentic, maybe in the same way.

You can read the rest of the interview at the Chicago Sun-Times (alternate link here).

WCT: Well let's talk about the new album. It's called Funstyle — is it meant for you to have fun with this music?

Liz Phair: No, it's a label that my composing partner and I came up with because we were like, "What is this wacky stuff we are doing?" It was freaking everybody out, like my management [and] my label, and we were just laughing. There was a huge amount of humor on the making of this album. It was a fun record to make. We were joking, "Like what is this?"

You can read the rest of the interview at the Windy City Times (alternate link here).

And suddenly, it sort of made sense. Phair merges the best of both worlds: the savvy, photogenic flirt dressed to make indie geeks lose themselves (and probably their indie girlfriends) in rapture, and the young girl filled with envy, recklessness, fury and longing. Phair was dressed to thrill in a fur stole, tight shirt, and shiny black skirt with a line roughly 27 inches above the knee while she sang, "I want to be cool, tall, vulnerable and luscious. I would have it all if I only had this much." Looking at her, the envy and fury was difficult to imagine. Hearing her – and imagining her first defying social convention, then the critics who championed her — it wasn’t so hard.

Read the rest of the review plus view photos by Shawn Parker here.

At that point, Phair asked if Tiffany Jones was in the audience because the first song of the encore was partly about her, and indeed Tiffany was there. Phair hugged her from the stage after verifying a story from their childhood together about how they all knew five girls whose names all began with a "T" and that the song, "Girls' Room", was about them.

Read the rest of the review here.

The setlist:

• Supernova
• 6'1"
• Help Me Mary
• Divorce Song
• May Queen
• Flower
• Never Said
• Nashville
• And He Slayed Her
• Polyester Bride
• Perfect World
• Mesmerizing
• Oh, Bangladesh
• Extraordinary
• Stratford-On-Guy
• Spirit Of Radio (Rush cover)
• Fuck And Run

Encore:
• Girls' Room
• Soap Star Joe
• Johnny Feelgood
• Why Can't I?

Phair's music has always challenged the notion that empowered women should be shy about sexuality. So it seemed appropriate that, faced with mounting technical difficulties early in the set, the now-43-year-old mother invited two audience members on stage to help her sing "Flower", a song whose X-rated lyrics should be googled to be properly appreciated. Otherwise, Phair played most of the timeless Guyville, and drew huge crowd support for lesser-known cuts such as "Polyester Bride". "And He Slayed Her", which is apparently a gleeful ditty about the death of one of Phair's former label bosses, went over especially well.

Read the rest of the review plus view photos from the show here.

[Thanks to Matt Farley / Metromix Denver for the review / photos.]

"Lake Effect Weekend on WUWM-FM 89.7 Milwaukee

01-14-11: LIZ ON WUWM-FM'S LAKE EFFECT THIS WEEKEND According to The Pabst Theater, Liz will be on 89.7 WUWM-FM's Lake Effect program, Milwaukee Public Radio's daily interview program, Saturday (January 15th) and Sunday (January 16th) around 3:40 PM (Central Standard Time) both days. You can hear it streamed live here or listen to the archived program here. [Thanks to The Pabst Theater for the info.]

[Thanks to John Wenzel / Reverb / Denver Post for the interview.]

[Thanks to Tom Murphy / Denver Westword for the interview.]

[Thanks to John Wenzel / Denver Post for the interview.]

[Thanks to Tom Murphy / Denver Westword for the interview and XRay from the Liz Phair Forum for the link.]

[Thanks to the Bluebird Theatre for the info.]

[Thanks to David Schultz / Earvolution for the review.]

[Thanks to Chris Sikich for the photos.]

[Thanks to The Blue Note for the update.]

[Thanks to Liz Phair for the status update.]

[Thanks to Consequence of Sound for the info.]