PUBLISHED: 09-08-08

Brett and Butter

Out with the new, in with the old music

This summer, something happened I never thought would.

Leaning against the stage of the Vic Theater in June, I saw Liz Phair walk out, dressed skimpily in short shorts, a skin-tight vest and wedge platforms, to roaring applause from the at-capacity crowd that echoed throughout the theater. Within seconds, she launched into “Six Foot One,” the opener to her debut album, Exile In Guyville, which she re-issued that month.

From there, Phair continued doing something she hasn’t done before by performing her first record in its entirety 15 years after its release-and the fans loved it.

The energy in the theater was electrifying. Not only were the once raw emotions behind this album coming through Phair’s vocals, but the emotion behind the 18-track disc was apparent in her demeanor, as well.

Glimpsing at those surrounding me in the audience, I could see their excitement on certain songs, their sorrow and the emotion of their memories of first hearing this disc showing on their face.

Liz Phair is not the only one following this trend. Over the past two years, musical acts like Sonic Youth, Wilco, Iron Maiden, Lucinda Williams and others have been banking on their earlier works rather than their newest albums. Bands have been revisiting-so to speak-their earlier albums that made them famous and set the scene for their musical careers, and the trend has caught on. However, some acts are re-issuing their earlier works and promoting them with concerts, performing their most notable albums in their entirety.

Phair performed Exile start-to-finish to sold out audiences not only in Chicago, but also in San Francisco and New York earlier this year, and she will play more cities later this year. In July, Public Enemy performed their 1988 album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. Lou Reed performed his album Berlin for its 35th anniversary also in July.

Although the numbers behind doing a re-issue and accompanying tour back up the reason labels and artists may want to do it-Phair brought in an average gross of $31,787 for her three-city stint earlier this year, and Sonic Youth drew in around $500,000 for a two-night stint in Berkeley, Calif. last year, according to Billboard-the reasons aren’t necessarily solely monetary.

Cynics may see it as a ploy to milk the album for what it’s worth money-wise, but for others who appreciate the work, it’s more of a way to re-send a signal, a message back out to the world and say, “Hey, I’m still here. This is still going on. Listen to me.” And it’s working.

I’m already picky about who I listen to and what I like. I’ve been called a 45-year-old in a 20-year-old’s body when it comes to my musical taste, but I just chalk it up to being curious about what I missed musically when I was too young to appreciate it.

With these acts, and I’m sure more to come, it’s only a good thing that they’re revisiting their most important works and sharing them again with both the audiences who fell in love with them years ago and to people like me who might not have heard, or really listened to, what they were saying until now.

And for many, the lyrics and the songs still speak to issues going on today in the world.

There’s no expiration date for songs about sorrow, the world or love, but these works have been written more eloquently and more personally than some are today.

And for the fans out there, it’s a pure treat to hear one of your favorite artists perform their masterpiece works in their entirety. It used to be rare, but that might not be the case anymore.

Now, I’m just hoping all the other great albums of the past get their time in the spotlight one more time, too.

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