The Restricted Review: August 2025

(Rated 10/5) I was 27 years old when ‘Jagged Little Pill’ was released. How amazing to see Alanis live for the third time on a 27th for the 30th anniversary celebration of that release. And just a month on another 27 – my birthday 😉

Words really cannot express how much this woman has come to mean to me. I need Alanis herself to do that with her wonderful ways with words. Her lyrics resonate with so many of my life experiences, and I know I am not alone. That resonation became even more evident when I studied for my counselling diploma and started writing essays – or in my case a few mini-plays – and used her lyrics to illustrate so many of my personal processes. It was almost a case of what didn’t fit or have a place in my story… my journey… all of our journeys! Just for example… ‘You Learn’: Learning from Life Experiences ‘You Owe Me Nothing In Return’: Carl Roger’s Core Conditions, especially Acceptance ‘Precious Illusions’: Dissociation to Cope with Trauma ‘Perfect’: Conditions of Worth ‘Hand In My Pocket’: Holding Apparent Contradictions ‘Utopia’: Group Work! ‘Ironic’: Except many cases mentioned were not actually ‘Ironic’, but what a hit! 😉

I don’t remember the date, or even the year I first went to see AM, but at a guess the early noughties. I recall my friend picking me up and dancing down the stairs from my flat singing “Do I Stress You Out?” (From ‘All I Really Want’) I can’t recall the reply aside from lots of laughter. My second time was 7 years ago (I do love the number 7!) in 2018 with one of my counselling trainee peers and good friend. We ‘sat’ – well except not as everybody stood up and danced for the entire concert – and sang along from almost the back of the venue. I could hardly see Alanis, but her hair was much shorter than in JLP days. Enormous fun, though, to commune with Alanis and fellow fans singing so much I lost my voice!

I saw AM was doing a world tour this year – and was even considering travelling elsewhere in the UK to see her – but happily the O2 date popped up. Initially I looked at seats ‘in the Gods’, but at the time I was considering it I was feeling really down. I can’t even remember why just now, but with encouragement from my super SFAM, I decided to go for it! Seats right up close – well third row ‘ground seats’ aka stalls I guess – and as personal as you can be in a huge arena! I got a ‘You Learn’ dress, but in the end out of that, my ‘Junkie’ T-Shirt and ‘Can’t Not’ T-Shirt, the latter won to be worn for the occasion 😊

It’s become ‘a thing’ with me and my SFAM now to do meal, merch, visit facilities, drinks and then seats! Lol! We had Wagamama Noodles then joined the Merch Queue. I’d checked Alanis’ own website before to get a kind of head’s up on what would be available and make a pre-choice. Except, that what was actually on offer was pretty different, so I had to re-evaluate 😉 The queue reminded me of the back n forth queue to see QEII lying in state! Though it took a small fraction of the time that took people for us to get to the front. There was a beautiful purple T-shirt and the expected Tour T-shirt with lovely pic of Alanis on the front and tour dates on the back. However, I settled on the “I’m High But I’m Grounded” Tank Top and a Hoodie with Tour Dates on the back too, but Alanis performing with that magnificent mane of hair covering her face on the front. Sold! Next stage battling the O2 App to get into the venue. I’d ‘practised’ opening it a lot with fear of it failing anxiety. And, yep, it did fail! A calm man told us to wait (by the bins as it happened) until my phone managed to connect to WiFi. Except that it didn’t! So, I tried my other phone (one is my personal and one ‘client’), and it worked – I was so nervous the tickets would disappear again, I shoved the screen into the man’s face, and he obliging scanned the QR code. Phew! That drama over. Facilities, obtaining of a pint of lager each – and then, realising we had unnecessarily gone up to the top of the venue, climbing all the stairs back down to the ‘ground’.

Alanis’ guest support was Liz Phair. She was Loud and Uninteresting from our POVs. Unfortunately, sometime during her set though, one of our pints got spilled, so we wound up sharing one pint for Alanis’ set, carefully ‘dancing’ around it so as not to lose it as well!

So, Alanis appeared… back with that marvellous mane of beautifully thick wavy hair and looking almost exactly the same as 30 years ago. Stunning!! Commencing with ‘Hand In My Pocket’. She truly is Sensationally Special!! That voice as exquisite as ever!! Whole Performance Mesmerising!! And maybe the best thing, the Hairography was back and totally entrancing!!! As my SFAM commented, how does she do it without getting a headache?!?! I was never going to remember the full set-list, but AI to the rescue, and yes I think pretty much right 😊 There needed to be a balance for me to make it through the whole gig between standing and dancing and sitting down. I chose the quieter numbers to sit and the big boppy hits to stand – oh aside from the last two, which I’ll come to. In front of us were three ladies who seemed to sit for the entire show. One lady had her arm round another – maybe Mum & Daughter? I really felt for them. It does feel difficult to criticise, as of course everyone wants to, and should, enjoy themselves, but all the jumping up and down, waving of arms and mobiles around blocks an otherwise really good view, which people have paid for! I don’t know what the answer is. Another balance to be struck is between listening and taking in that incredible voice and singing along cos it’s just so much fun to do so! I think in the main I chose to sing along with those big boppy hits, though I did sing to my SFAM, “Be a good girl” in ‘Perfect’ 😉. At this point I feel the need to mention ‘Mary Jane’ – such a superb song and brought out tears for me watching Alanis perform it on one of the big screens. (Not that other songs didn’t, but for whatever reason I particularly remember that.) Appropriately – life changes and times change after all – Alanis made a few lyric changes: In ‘Ironic’ – for which she also had a guest fan singing on stage with her for the intro, “An old man, turned 98, He won the lottery and died the next day, It’s a black fly in your Chardonnet, It’s a death row pardon 2 minutes too late, Isn’t it Ironic, don’t you think…”, then the guest fan was hugged, thanked, applauded, and left, with Alanis booming out, “It’s like raaaaain on your wedding day….”, and later “It’s meeting the man of my dreams and meeting his beautiful husband {not wife} - many times!”. Also in, ‘You Learn’, instead of “Wearing it out the way a 3-year old would do”, it was the way a 5-, 7- and 15-year old would do (I thought I remembered), but according to Google her children are currently 3 (Winter Mercy), 6 (Onyx Solace) and 11 (Ever Imrie), so I’m a little confused! Never mind 😉 Some seem to criticise her for it, but I love all the running along the stage and whirling around – maybe she reminds me of my favourite little Jack Russell Terrier and his whirly greeting dance to meet people – yet at one point the whirling was so intense that Alanis disappeared through the floor of the stage! And then she re-appeared running up some stairs at the back of the arena, before joining her band on yet another stage, though I couldn’t see where that was! Magical! 😉 As was being in the dark with mobile torches shining all around the arena during some numbers. I made choices between being in the moment and totally present with Alanis, and capturing pics n videos for posterity. I recorded a snippet of ‘You Learn’ and full videos of ‘Uninvited’ and ‘Thank U’ her last two numbers – effectively the encores, for which she returned to the stage wearing an ‘I Love London’ T-shirt. I love how she told us she loved us and to take care of each other at the end. I <3 U too, AM!!!