Review: Alanis Morissette's Riverbend Show Was a Lesson in Women Power

Going to Riverbend on a balmy and rainy summer night is a rite of passage for Cincinnatians, even if that means fighting the unbearable traffic, which entails taking 20 minutes to drive a mile. But seeing Alanis Morissette, Joan Jett and up-and-coming Nashville star Morgan Wade — aka “The Triple Moon Tour” — was worth it. 

County musician Wade opened the long night with her singer-songwriter tunes, and Jett followed with the Blackhearts; all of them, of course, wore black. Jett has been a mainstay since the ‘70s, first with her teen group the Runaways and then with the Blackhearts. Thankfully, younger generations have discovered her badassness, including a 10-year-old girl seated next to me. Jett’s got the most ripped arms. I kept wondering, does she lift weights? How can I get arms like that? How can I be her? She and her band rocked through the hits, like the call-and-response “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll,” “Bad Reputation,” “I Hate Myself For Loving You” and her Tommy James and the Shondells cover of “Crimson and Clover.” She introduced “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” saying, “The gauntlet has been thrown down,” and something about “our freedoms have ended” and “the clowns will decide what you believe in.” The crowd stood up and sang along in a unifying way. (Fuck those clowns.) After her hour-long set, Jett and the band threw guitar picks into the audience. 

I noticed between sets, Riverbend played music solely from female artists, and that couldn’t have been a coincidence. 

At 9:15 p.m. sharp, a video montage of Alanis’ revered career showed on the monitors. She began her two-hour, 25-song setlist with one of my favorite songs from Jagged Little Pill, “Hand in My Pocket,” replete with harmonica. A giant moon shone in the background. She rarely spoke to the audience except to introduce her excellent band, and occasionally knelt before the drumkit and interacted with other band members. 

During the song “Lens,” troubling stats about gender inequality and images from BLM and pro-abortion protests appeared on the curtains behind her. She leaned into her feminism and social justice reforms in a quiet yet affecting way. She hit the harmonica again on the sweet “Head Over Feet,” and the crowd cheered her on. After playing “You Learn,” people started to leave in droves. Were they headed to the bar, or leaving so they wouldn’t have to battle a traffic nightmare an hour later? Either way, they missed out. 

I’ll admit the tone for most of her show was mellow and overall less energetic than Jett, but Alanis has a lot of ballads and isn’t the rage-induced woman she was her in teens anymore. She’s more centered, but that rage is still bubbling under the surface, as it should be, like on the strobed and rockin’ “Smiling.” Twice during the show, she spun around for a minute, her signature long locks swinging around. Just watching her do that made me feel dizzy. 

In a kind of magic trick, she and the band appeared with a setup in the back of the audience, in which she performed slow ones  “Rest,” “Mary Jane,” “Ablaze” and “Your House.” I heard a loud, drunk woman behind me shout, “I like her more than I thought I would” — that’s the review. Afterward, Alanis and the band reappeared on the mainstage and played “Ironic” to a sing-along. The monitor showed reactions from the audience, like what sporting events do, and it was cool to see people’s excited faces. She changed the line “beautiful wife” to “beautiful husband” to include the LBGTQ+ community in the audience. She ended the set on the fiery “You Oughta Know,” with images of flames appearing on the backdrop and red lights flashing. I was in high school when I first heard it, and it tapped into my rage in a way that I didn’t know was possible. It felt liberating. A venue filled with women of different ages, thousands in fact, yelling, “Are you thinking of me when you fuck her?” felt like a catharsis that had been building up for years. Almost 30 years later, it’s still the quintessential female rage anthem. 

She briefly left the stage and returned for a two-song encore, including the powerful “Uninvited” from The City of Angels soundtrack. Even at the end of the night, Alanis had indefatigable energy and jogged around stage, covered in sweat, while her band played the piano and wailed on the guitar.

Though hearing “You Oughta Know” riled me up, hearing her final song of the night, “Thank U,” from her Jagged follow-up, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, was the one that finally broke me. When I first heard “Thank U,” I had just moved to L.A. from Dayton, Ohio. I was 21 years old and had started a brand new life. The song is about gratitude — gratitude Tweets from fans appeared on the monitors — and in that moment I felt so grateful that I get to do the work I do, that I get to live the life I do. And like Alanis and Jett, I have surmounted so many obstacles and experienced so much trauma and grief to still be standing here. “Thank U” epitomizes the joy we feel once we let go of things, and these days, Alanis is all smiles and joy. 

During a chaotic time when rights have been stripped from women and the U.S. potentially has the first woman president on the horizon, watching these women is a reminder of how much work has been done but still needs to be done. Alanis, Jett and Wade embody those generations of women who have led us to our current moment. We are all in this together, and that feels like a major win.