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One of the marquee shows of the 2018 Northside Festival was Liz Phair who is celebrating the 25th anniversary of her classic album Exile in Guyville. She reissued the album along with her Girly-Sound cassettes via Matador and has been touring in support of the reissue. This included a super intimate performance for her on June 7 at National Sawdust as a part of the festival.

Opening the show was a solo performance from Sophie Allison of Soccer Mommy. She performed with just her electric guitar and vocals, giving us stripped down versions of tracks from this years fantastic Clean, along with some older tracks and her cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire.”

For many people they had waited many years to see Phair perform, myself included as this was my first time ever seeing her perform. To get to see her perform her best material in a tiny beautiful space such as National Sawdust, well it was a real treat. She performed along with her touring guitarist Connor Sullivan giving us some pretty stripped down and raw versions of classic material such as “6’1,” “Girls! Girls! Girls!,” and “Help Me Mary,” which allowed fans to act as her defacto backup singers, passionately singing along to every word along with Phair almost like an echo. It was a fantastic way to see her perform and was surely a much different affair than her much larger upcoming perforamnce in the area at Brooklyn Steel on October 6.

Find some iphone shots from both Liz Phair and Soccer Mommy’s performance below, along with their setlists.

Liz Phair

Soccer Mommy

Soccer Mommy:

Soccer Mommy Setlist:

1. Skinned Knees
2. Henry
3. Grown
4. I’m on Fire (Bruce Springsteen cover)
5. Allison
6. Still Clean
7. Flaw
8. Cool

Liz Phair:

Liz Phair Setlist:

1. Fuck or Die
2. 6’1″
3. Explain It to Me
4. Batmobile
5. Easy
6. Go West
7. Soap Star Joe
8. Ant in Alaska
9. Girls! Girls! Girls!
10. Help Me Mary
11. Stratford-on-Guy
12. Mesmerizing
13. Polyester Bride
14. Whip Smart
15. Never Said
16. Fuck and Run
17. Divorce Song


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