Liz Phair’s ‘Exile in Guyville’ 30th Anniversary Tour Gives Disaffected Gen Xers Permission to Get Nostalgic: Concert Review
variety.comMichael Schneider Variety Editor at Large If you’re Gen X and living in Los Angeles, there’s a good chance you were at the Wiltern on Friday night, bathing in nostalgia as Liz Phair performed her seminal 1993 album “Exile in Guyville” in its entirety.
Now that the age range for Gen X is between 41 and 56, it was probably inevitable that we’d succumb to wistfulness. Isn’t ironic, don’tcha think (sorry, Alanis), since we were supposed to be the cynical and disaffected generation.
And yet, there was something deeply bonding for the audience at the Wiltern, as we all traveled back in time, cynicism-free, for an hour and a half. “It has been 30 years — more, actually — since I sat in my bedroom with my TASCAM 4-track, and I recorded a lot of these songs on cassette,” a genuinely grateful Phair told the crowd. “I used to go out to parties and if I just felt bad or something or if I was pissed off, I would come home and I would write a song.
And look at this, 30 years later!” As she played the entirety of “Guyville,” at first it felt like Phair was performing a greatest hits medley.
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