Angry single women, happy couples, and complacent male friends looking to score filled Goldstein Auditorium Saturday for Liz Phair’s concert, a show that contained more of the singer’s established material than her new pop hits.

The crowd was an accurate representation of Phair’s fan base: older, more hardcore listeners wailed along to such mid-90s favorites as ‘Johnny Feelgood’ and ‘Divorce Song,’ while newbies spat out the lyrics to ‘Extraordinary’ and ‘Red Light Fever.’ Phair seems to understand this separation in her listeners. In her song ‘Rock Me’ she jokes with her fan base, claiming they ‘don’t even know who Liz Phair is.’

‘I had nothing better to do on Valentine’s Day and wanted to get out,’ said Jenny Jakway, a sophomore in the College of Visual and Performing Arts who was admittedly unfamiliar with most of Phair’s music.

Phair opened her portion of the show on a typically bawdy note with the crude ‘Flower.’ Though the song’s title may seem innocent, the lyrics, such as ‘I’ll fuck you ’til your dick is blue’ leave little to the imagination. Fans of the new, lighter Liz seemed somewhat taken aback, but this was clearly what the rockers clad in red garter-belt bustier and punk rock armbands had in mind.

Though her show had several technical glitches, Phair played them off with a dumb-blond act.

‘I don’t remember standing on this pedal thing,’ she laughed. ‘I feel like Jessica Simpson.’

Phair transitioned cleanly between old and new hits, following the radio favorite ‘Why Can’t I?’ with the standard ‘Fuck and Run.’ ‘Why Can’t I?’ was clearly the most recognized song of the night, as fans young and old bobbed their heads and chanted along to lyrics chronicling the singer’s desire for an adulterous relationship.

Phair followed her 16-song set with a short encore.

‘I like to bookend my sets; obscene and obscene,’ she said before launching into ‘H.W.C.’ The song, a tribute to warm man-juice, touts the substance as ‘the fountain of youth, the meaning of life.’

The core of Phair’s set centered around favorites from her first release, Exile in Guyville.

‘Tonight, the older material sounded better,’ said Ashley Gillen, a senior TRF major. ‘The new stuff is so produced. But there was a little of both.’

Syracuse rockers Merit opened for Phair. Their tunes included ‘Reunion,’ a heartbreak-rock ode, ‘Man on a String,’ which chronicled a whipped lover and ‘Cold,’ which lead singer Brenna Merritt dedicated to the harsh winter of Syracuse. The band was animated – guitarist Hal Appleby leapt onto the drums, nearly knocking the entire set over and Merritt herself sang half of a song through a giant megaphone.

‘I hope everyone out there has someone to love,’ she said. ‘I have all of you.’

The band credits Rage Against the Machine, Incubus, and Alien Ant Farm among their current favorites and influences.

‘I also really like the new OutKast album,’ said Jeff Nelson, drummer. ‘It has nothing to do with rock, but it’s amazing.’

Merritt also credits Phair among her musical muses.

‘I’m a big fan of Whip-smart and Exile in Guyville,’ Merritt said. ‘They’re definitely an inspiration, being a woman and being a musician.’

The band said the fact that Merritt is the only woman in the group doesn’t hinder its musical quest.

‘The scene in general is very male-dominated,’ Merritt said. ‘But it becomes a driving force to make me want to be as good as the men.’

Published on February 15, 2004 at 12:00 pm