Aug 5

Aug 5 Show Review: Alanis Morissette Celebrates 25 Years of 'Jagged Little Pill' in Wheatland

Alanis Morissette
‘Jagged Little Pill’ 25th Anniversary Tour
w/ Garbage
Toyota Amphitheatre
Wheatland, CA
August 4th, 2022

Photos and Review by Jared Stossel

The 1990s was a time of great exploration and growth for the genre of rock. With certain exceptions, the big arena rock acts and heavy metal boom of the 80s was dying out, and alternative rock was taking up the forefront of the space. It ushered in the grunge era and the beginning of the pop punk explosion that was about to take the world by storm. This period also ushered in the rise of Alanis Morissette, who would go onto release her ultra-successful third studio album, the groundbreaking Jagged Little Pill. The release of Pill found Morissette moving away from the poppier dance sound that had dominated her previous two records, this time experimenting with alternative rock and post-grunge to deliver one of the 90s most memorable and dominating albums. To this day, it has gone 16 times platinum in the United States along (meaning that it has sold 16,000,000 copies to date).

Yesterday evening, Morissette brought her highly anticipated Jagged Little Pill anniversary tour to Wheatland, CA, just a few miles outside of Sacramento proper. The tour was created to celebrate twenty-five years of the iconic album, initially slated to kick off in 2020 but delayed due to the pandemic. For an hour and a half, Morissette and her backing band brought the album to life, performing it with just as much passion and showmanship as she did in 1995. And my god, can she sing.

There was only one opening act for this tour, and it turned out to be an act who are stars in their own right: the iconic alt-rock act Garbage. Shirley Manson and co. took the stage for a near- hour long set that found the band pulling material from fan favorite albums like Version 2.0 and their self-titled debut, along with a mixture of tracks from their most recent effort, 2021’s No Gods No Masters. Garbage brought an 80s sound and aesthetic into the 90s, while managing to put their own spin on the alternative rock and new wave sounds that dominated their airwaves in the decade prior. Manson is still an engaging frontwoman after all these years, and the band acted as an excellent warm-up for the evening’s festivities.

After a sprawling video introduction that highlighted Morissette’s career and the impact her music has had on the world, she emerged to a roar of applause, running back and forth across the stage as she belted her way through tracks like “All I Really Want”, “Hand In My Pocket” and “Right Through You”. Morissette traded off between singing soaring vocal lines and playing a harmonica during these first few tracks. Now, while Jagged Little Pill was played in its entirety, the track list was switched up a bit, with nearly every song being preceded by a snippet from the other albums in her catalogue, like Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, Under Rug Swept, or 2020’s Such Pretty Forks In The Road. I thought this was a nice touch, as it gave Morissette a chance to introduce other pieces of music from throughout her catalogue, while not being completely defined by this one album.

Of course, the biggest crowd reactions of the evening came during…well, do I really even need to say it? It’s one thing to hear “Ironic” and “You Oughta Know” on the radio; it’s another thing entirely to see it live, to hear everyone screaming the words back, and see Morissette delivering every lyric with such depth and emotion.

Aside from a few thank yous and band member introductions, there wasn’t a ton of speaking in between songs; this evening was about the music. As the final notes of “You Oughta Know” rung out, the stage went dark before everyone returned for a three-song encore that included “Your House”, “Uninvited”, and ended with Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie’s “Thank U”. Alanis Morissette’s fire is still burning bright, and Thursday evening’s Wheatland show only further proved that she is not just the “queen of the 90s”, but the creator of one of the greatest albums of the millennial generation and a truly transcendent performer.

Alanis Morissette Set List
All I Really Want
Hand In My Pocket
Right Through You
You Learn
Hands Clean (snippet)
Forgiven
Everything (snippet)
Mary Jane
Diagnosis (snippet)
Reasons I Drink
Head Over Feet
So Unsexy (snippet)
Ablaze
Nemesis (snippet)
Perfect
Losing The Plot (snippet)
Wake Up
Not The Doctor
Ironic
Sympathetic Character (snippet)
Smiling
I Remain (snippet)
You Oughta Know

Encore
Your House
Uninvited
Thank U