Concert Review – Alanis Morissette: San Diego Humphries by the Bay

Many remember Alanis as an artist one of the last artists to succeed in the era of record sales.  She broke records with her debut album Jagged Little Pill and had moderate success with her second album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie.  At first she was the rebel outgoing girl singer that hit every young woman by surprise.   Most of the songs in her record breaking debut album were hits and continue to sound fresh to the day.  For her second album she decided to turn a little to the dark side and alienated some of her original fans while gaining a cult following that stays with her until today.    Recently she released a new album that is sounding pretty good, at least in these ears, and embarked on a new Tour that hopes to bring her back to the spotlight.   Havoc and Bright lights has a catchy single in Guardian and is as solid as an album can get.

In her visit to the city of San Diego she came back with a setlist that surely pleased old time fans and satisfied the newcomer.   It was my first time seeing her and must say that was slightly disappointed.    First the sound.  As in many concerts I’ve attended in this venue, sound seems to be a problem.  Alanis was constantly struggling to get herself in to the mix and sounded horrible through the P.A.   I started wondering if she was doing it on purpose but as the concert moved on I quickly grabbed note of what was happening, mixing was flawed.   When the final 5 songs came by, sound was finally good and I could get to hear another set of flaws: Her Voice.     I wasn’t that impressed with her live performance.  She never looks at the crowd, walks around the stage too much, distracting us and sometimes seems to be a little bit nervous.   She also has bad control over her voice and the microphone, no wonder she got lost in the mix!

Even her old songs were sung a little bit bad.   I also heard some overdubbing in songs like Guardian and Havoc.   I particularly enjoyed the final part of the concert when the band and her turned the show in to some sort of acoustic setting.    The final song of the night was my favorite as “Thank You” has a special meaning for me.   The choice of songs was great as newcomers like me could get a hold of listening to the old favorites and having a glimpse of the new stuff.  I thought the newer songs were better than the old ones.   The band didn’t sound that good either.  No proficiency here.  In the end it was an average concert that ended with a bang.   I had a better time with my friends and girlfriend than the actual concert which did offer good background music to our happy times.    Been there done that.

SCORE 5.0 out of 10.0