Concert review - Alanis Morissette, Birmingham O2 Academy

Alanis Morissette

Birmingham O2 Academy

Concert review and photos by Ian Harvey

"This is the first night of our European tour, so no pressure!" Alanis Morissette told the sell- out audience in Birmingham.

Well if there was any pressure it certainly didn't tell as the Canadian singer-songwriter led her superb five-piece band through a near two-hour set finely balanced between the old and the new.

Click on the image to the right for more gig photos

Can it really be 17 years since Morissette released her breakthrough album Jagged Little Pill?

Now 38, she looks and sounds hardly a day older, testament perhaps to her vegan diet (she was voted one of the world's sexiest vegetarians in 2009).

Jagged Little Pill provided the backbone of the set, with Ironic, rather unironically, turning into a duet between Morissette and her 3,000 adoring fans, while You Oughta Know has lost none of its menace, the ultimate two-fingered salute to an errant ex.

Whether electric or acoustic, much of her work has a mystical eastern vibe, often in the background but usually there. That was still evident in the piano-led Havoc and her latest single Guardian from her forthcoming Havoc and Bright Lights album, and particularly in 2008's Versions Of Violence, with its Kashmir-influenced heavy riff.

When she wasn't standing still at the microphone with a guitar, Morissette, dressed in a black T-shirt, denim shorts and wet-look leggings, continually paced the stage, a bundle of energy and smiles.

The encores were all utterly exuberant, from a new laid-back arrangement of Hand in My Pocket (another big singalong for the fans), to the sublime Thank You, in which Morissette laid claim to being the only singer on the planet who can make the word 'disillusionment' sound thoroughly upbeat and uplifting.