Sometime in 1994, I wandered into the record store (that's what we used to call iTunes, kids...but it was a STORE. With PEOPLE. And albums you could touch) at Chautauqua Mall in Lakewood, NY and asked if they carried a new album by a Canadian artist named Alanis Morissette.

I had to spell her name for the sales associate.  She was new on the scene (both Alanis and the sales associate) and not many people knew just how far "Jagged Little Pill" was about to go. But I had heard a taste of it in my first year at SUNY Fredonia, and I wanted more.

That day, I listened to every second of that record on repeat.  I don't think I listened to a single other thing for probably a good 6 weeks in a row.  Her bellows spoke directly to me -- an angst-y young college coed with a steel-trap mind and a severe broken heart. There wasn't enough plaid flannel or frayed and tattered jeans to get me through without a serious soundtrack.

For the record, "You Oughta Know" was the first song I ever sang with a live band in front of a crowd, after a bartending shift at Old Main Inn.

I nailed it. ;)

Flash forward to a few years later (true fans will "get" that) and we've all grown a bit older, physically and emotionally.  But the angst still lies hidden behind years of wisdom and whiskey until the minute Alanis steps on the stage.  Her hair has changed, her "laugh lines" a bit deeper....but the voice was impeccable.  A mirror-audio-image to the first seconds of "I...want...you to know....." that you remember.

At Seneca Niagara Casino on Saturday, October 4, 2014, I was transported to 94...then to 98.  Back to 95 for a bit, and even danced thru the early 00's.  Frankly it didn't matter where we went...it was a moment in time I won't soon forget.  It was, strangely, like visiting the Mother Ship to my early adulthood.

My younger friend, Angela, who came to the show with me, held back her this-chick-is--old-and-crazy giggles as tears streamed down my face during "Hands Clean", as well as during "Not The Doctor", and finally again during the show-closing "Thank You".

Unfortunately there was an issue with the company-camera I was using, but I ran into an independent photographer, Thom Jennings, who agreed to share his photos of the show with me.  And now, with you.

It's like 10,000 cameras when all you need is a photo... ;)

 

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