Emotion.
I think, if there’s a single word to describe what Alanis Morissette brought to Riverbend last night, that would be it. My wife Lydia, who’s the same age as me, and was introduced to her music around the same time, points to Morissette as someone she’s looked up to since, and for very specific reasons.
“There was this aspect of being introduced to this music in junior high, as a preteen, and trying to be alternative, and I remember playing “Ironic” for my mom for the first time, and telling her to just listen to the song, how amazing it was. Alanis Morissette was the first top 40 artist that I willingly took to my mom and said, “I need you to listen to this. I don’t know what it means, but I know that I feel something and I need you to hear this.”
“She embodied the female rage that we didn’t know we could possess, even though at 12, 13, 14, 15 we still felt like we got it. She spoke to us about yearning, and not fitting into your skin. It wasn’t until it hit me as a 40-year-old, though, that like, now I get it,” she told me after the show.
Riverbend on a muggy summer night is an experience in and of itself - and, as with anything in Cincinnati this time of year, one must factor in the possibility of rain at any time. Thankfully, it held off most of the night, allowing the crowd packed into the lawn to only have to spend most of Morissette’s set soaking wet.
Before the career and life-spanning highlight reel and introduction, and for some, likely a reintroduction to Morissette and her headlining role on The Triple Moon Tour started, however, opening acts Morgan Wade and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts got things going.
Nashville singer/songwriter and alt-country musician Morgan Wade spent her half hour on stage warming up the crowd with mid-tempo, breathy anthems. Her rock-infused take on country played well to a crowd keyed into the powerful frontwoman dynamic, with plenty of folks well aware of her music and singing along. As the crowd trickled in - they quickly picked up on what she was doing and enjoyed what they heard.
What is there to say about the immeasurable talent and raw beauty of the still rocking and rolling Joan Jett? She’s been a fixture in the punk/rock/pop realm since before I was born, and remains a timeless, almost ethereal musical figure even now. Her show featured the latest iteration of The Blackhearts - of which Cincinnati has an at least tangential connection by way of drummer Michael McDermott, who plays with NJ expat and current Cincy resident Sammy Kay in The Kilograms - and they sounded just as good as one could hope as they played through Jett’s immense and hit-heavy catalog. Her set was a pleasant and entertaining mixture of covers, some deep cuts, and The Hits, which continue to have an impact on the culture in ways I’m sure she’s even to this day surprised by.
After a relatively short turnaround, it was Alanis Morissette’s Show. Before she took the stage, a highlight reel, a sort of short biographical film that took into account Morissette’s history as a musician, a mother, and activist - sometimes all at once - played to the crowd as a way to both remind concert goers who she was and to let them know what they were about to experience.
“Her show really personified the journey and the trauma of what it is to be a woman in this world, to recognize and finally be able to live in your own skin,” Lydia told me.
“I didn’t expect it to hit me as hard as it did so immediately.”
From note one, Morissette moved around the stage in an almost manic way. I looked around to see a lot of the crowd - especially the women in attendance - having a wide range of reactions, all of them a privilege to witness. A catharsis was taking place en masse, it was palpable and, I imagine for some, intoxicating. There were tears, smiles, and voices singing along loudly, quietly, internally. Even now, listening to my wife and partner describe what the show meant to her, what Morissette’s music has meant and continues to mean to her, the emotion it stirs, the passion and excitement and sorrow is, quite simply, moving.
“All of the work that she has done as a human being and as a woman and as a mother, growing from this place of angsty, alternative, feminine rage to “wholeness over wellness,” recognizing that rage and angst is part of who she is, and part of being a woman. The show really encapsulated feeling out of control, but letting go of it, dropping to the ground, picking yourself back up, and moving on calmly.”
Her set was sprawling, and yes, she played the hits, the radio-friendly (musically, not lyrically) anthems that she’s most known for pop culturally. But her show went much deeper, letting her reach into an extensive back catalog and fill her set with songs that fit the big picture, the story she was telling, the feelings she wanted her audience to genuinely feel, the music she is proud of and helped define who she was when it released and who she is now.
It takes someone of intense, innate talent to be able to create art so personal, yet so universally accessible, to write songs that are so specific and speak to incredibly trying and traumatic experiences that each and every listener can understand, appreciate, empathize with, and use in their own stories to process and heal and accept.
“We’re all so much bigger than we give ourselves credit for - and one of the things about her lyricism is that she’s always embraced the weird dichotomy of being a human, of holding opposite truths,” Lydia finally says, a few deep breaths and maybe a few more tears later.
Last night’s performance was a gentle, genuinely beautiful reminder that music can be absolute magic, that it’s incantation and intention and truth and beauty and sadness and sorrow and love and hate and so many other things. It’s closely held and personal, but universally shared and experienced. And once it’s out in the world, things change.
All of that is part of who Alanis Morissette is, was, and always will be. For the crowd at Riverbend, I like to think they’ll carry what they experienced when they first heard her music along with what they were a part of last night and hold on to it for a long time to come.
