In 2020, many events set to take place were postponed or cancelled altogether to ensure safety and overall feasibility. Anniversaries or commemorations factored around dates would be recelebrated, which can certainly be unfortunate in terms of sentimentality, but lucky in general for those events able to be rescheduled. Concerts fell victim to this event grouping, such as Alanis Morisette’s Jagged Little Pill 25 Year Anniversary Tour, initially set to kick off in June 2020 in Portland, Oregon.
The 31-date North American tour, initially set to be accompanied by Liz Phair and Garbage, was postponed on May 8, 2020. In June 2021, new rescheduled and added dates were released with the tour beginning Aug. 12, 2021 in Texas. In July 2021, Liz Phair announced that she will not be joining the tour and that Cat Power would accompany in place. The Jagged Little Pill “26th Anniversary Tour” would go on, and having been in possession of tickets since 2019, I was more than thrilled and grateful to attend in Cuyahoga Falls last Wednesday.
Cuyahoga Falls’ Blossom Music Center, an amphitheater venue with plenty of undercover seating alongside a large lawn seating area, hosted the show. The lawn packed up quickly, as did the GA area and regular, standard seats. Tickets for the initial Cuyahoga Falls show on July 23, 2020 were honored at the event, as were the later released mobile ticket options. Regardless of the ticket purchase time frame, one thing that every single person there shared was the anticipation of live music.
Alanis opened the set with “All I Really Want,” coexisting with her harmonica armed and ready. To say that it was perfect would be an immense understatement: opening the show with the album’s opening guitar riff. It was concert magic at its finest; everyone in the audience screamed right along with her. It was a phenomenon I was grateful to feel again. The first four songs were from Jagged Little Pill, and the 23-track setlist included not only the album played in its entirety but also other new and old tracks. Jagged Little Pill’s anniversary was commemorated beautifully, as was the magic of live music.
There were no real crowd favorites of the evening. The classics like “Ironic” and “Hand in My Pocket” sparked a lot of attention, but every song was appreciated and adored. The crowd remained lively all evening, amping up in energy following Garbage’s set and carrying through Alanis’ encore. While the show was a little different than a usual concert due to pandemic restrictions, one thing that did not change was those prepared to split before the encore to avoid traffic. A fair amount of people employed this tactic, with a majority of us riding it out until the end.
Even with missing out on the exact anniversary date, the celebration of Jagged Little Pill lived on. It was an incredible feeling to see a show again and to be able to safely reschedule and put on the tour is a process not without gratitude and appreciation for every person who is involved. Live music is a gift, and this show captured that perfectly.
Lauren Patterson is a junior studying journalism. Please note that the views and ideas of columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to talk to Lauren? Tweet her @lpaatt.
