Now that Alanis has a new album, Steph and I considered getting tickets to an intimate performance outside of New York City - but the tickets ran at $100 a pop. Since there was no way of that happening, I figured I'd try my luck this time and I entered several "come see Alanis!" contests online. I had even forgotten about the contests and the possibility of Alanis when I received an email while on my way to school: "Alanis Morissette show TONIGHT!"
At first I thought it would be advertising tickets, and I almost deleted it unread - but then I thought about the improbability of an Alanis performance not being completely sold out, so I read it, and found out that I had just won two tickets to an intimate Alanis mini performance!
Talk about going full circle and what crap. I immediately texted Steph, secured her attendance, and hoped that my afternoon class would end on time so that at 6 on the dot we could drive downtown to see Alanis rock the shit out of a microphone.
It wasn't a very long performance - which I was okay with - since the songs were all perfect. Didn't know her new ones very well yet, but they sounded great, and she played all the classics that I loved. Totally awesome. You have to love an artist whose songs are able to mean something different if you listen to them at different moments in life - do you know what I mean? The way that "Hands Clean" was haunting and meant something very specific to me when her "Under Rug Swept" album came out all the way back in 2002, and how it kept changing meaning to the point that listening to it tonight, it held all of those old meanings, and new one's, too. This doesn't happen with every artist - more often than not, their songs mean what I thought of or was going through the first time I heard them.
And she finished the set playing "Thank U," and I was 18, and 22, and 25, 27, 31, still growing, still thankful.
Thank you, Alanis.
