Save this story Save Story Save this story Liz Phair has long admired Sleater-Kinney from afar. Phair remembers listening to Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker’s self-titled debut—dropped two years after her own, the genre-defining Exile in Guyville in 1993—while pregnant with her son, and was struck by how they’d crafted such catchy hooks in songs so raw and textured.
“When I heard Sleater-Kinney for the first time, it felt like they were speaking a musical language that I completely understood,” Phair tells Vogue . “Corin and Carrie are both total rock stars and I’ve always held them in such high regard.”
When Phair was planning her fall tour earlier this year, she reached out to the band in hopes that they might be interested in linking up for a handful of dates. The resulting Flannel and the Fury Tour took Phair and Sleater-Kinney across the country this past fall, with support from opening acts Snail Mail, Soccer Mommy, and Frankie Cosmos.
Phair’s favorite part of the tour was getting to watch her fellow tourmates every night before hitting the stage. “Nothing competes with the pleasure and inspiration I receive from watching all of them,” Phair tells me. “Soccer Mommy is not like Sleater-Kinney and I’m not like either of them, but I think we all have smart songwriting in common.”
Phair didn’t specifically set out to assemble an all-women lineup; they just happened to be the artists she was most excited to have on the road. It’s her small way of carrying the torch lit by Sarah McLachlan with Lilith Fair , the iconic all-women festival with which Phair toured in the late ’90s. She still considers that the best touring experience of her career.
“If the music business were more like how Lilith Fair operated, I would be on the road a lot more,” Phair says. “So thank God there are artists like Olivia Rodrigo who are using their success to keep bringing that ideal forward and uplift other female artists.” (Rodrigo asked Phair to be part of Daisy Chain Fields , her one-day festival held in California over the summer. Phair had to politely decline due to a vertigo issue at the time and to prioritize her dates with Sleater-Kinney, but she hopes to make it out for round two, should it come together.)
For now, she’s focused on completing Fairy Tales , the follow-up to her 2019 memoir Horror Stories , which she hopes to release next year. And to cap off the Flannel and the Fury Tour, she shared some exclusive snaps with Vogue from life on the road.
Expand 1/18 Getting show clothes organized for the trip! I take photos and pre-plan stage ensembles + accessories in case I can’t decide what to wear.
Expand 2/18 Blessings from the Fortuna Mountains on the way to El Cajon to start the F&F tour.
Expand Photo: Courtesy of Liz Phair 3/18 Neal Daniels’s drum cover for our Flannel & Fury tour. Behind it, the stage visuals getting a test run with Kat’s lighting design in El Cajon.
Expand Photo: Courtesy of Liz Phair 4/18 Sleater-Kinney stirring the wind at The Greek in San Francisco. The heat dome enveloping the West Coast followed us all the way into the mountains.
Expand Photo: Courtesy of Liz Phair 5/18 Soccer Mommy breathing heavenly zephyrs into Berkeley’s amphitheatre: “I point my finger to a halo in the sky. I see your light.”
Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgård Talk Swedish Meatballs, Amy Winehouse, and Dropping Trou in the Latest Off the Cuff 27 Ridiculously Easy Couples Costume Ideas for Halloween How to Preserve Your Social Battery Expand 6/18 Sweating through the West Coast heat dome.
Expand Photo: Courtesy of Liz Phair 7/18 Our set at The Salt Shed, with the Chicago river snaking through the city in the background. Best-new-venue-in-America award goes to this gem.
Expand Photo: Courtesy of Liz Phair 8/18 Me doing that Salt Shed shimmy with my band in Chicago. The fresh lake air triggered so many memories of home that I was tempted to go AWOL on the North Shore for a night.
Expand Photo: Courtesy of Liz Phair 9/18 The knuckleheads after the muses inhabit and inspire them on stage. Denver, Colorado, where the high altitude fast-tracks a good attitude and audience enthusiasm helped us scale the peaks.
Expand Photo: Courtesy of Liz Phair 10/18 Frankie Cosmos conjuring musical magic at The Egg in Albany. Got to meet Greta’s parents, whom I kept thanking for the loan of their daughter, a poor choice of words. Gabby and Greta joined us for 2 songs, “Glory” and “Flower,” which they utterly transformed with their harmonies.
Expand Photo: Courtesy of Liz Phair 11/18 MGM Music Hall at Fenway. Sleater-Kinney’s iconic riffs lured me to the stage nightly, though I needed to get ready for my own performance. More than once, I made myself late glued to their dynamic set.
Expand Photo: Courtesy of Liz Phair 12/18 Lindsey of Snail Mail fame-worshipping at the altar of Sleater-Kinney’s high-flying set.
Expand Photo: Courtesy of Liz Phair 13/18 Snail Mail vibing with the forest folk at McMenamins Edgefield in the Pacific Northwest. An invigorating set thanks to hammocks, incense, and an espresso bar tucked away among the trees backstage.
Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgård Talk Swedish Meatballs, Amy Winehouse, and Dropping Trou in the Latest Off the Cuff 27 Ridiculously Easy Couples Costume Ideas for Halloween How to Preserve Your Social Battery Expand 14/18 A 1974 Townley sculpture in Eugene, Oregon’s Alton Baker Park. The 8 stones commemorate the 8 indigenous Kalapuya bands. The heart stone casts a shadow on an opposite stone during the summer solstice.
Expand 15/18 Lindsey and Liz, wearing our LP and SK shirts.
Expand Photo: Courtesy of Liz Phair 16/18 Playing Ping-Pong with Carrie, Corin, and Lindsey. The US Open was underway during the first half of the Flannel & Fury tour. We usually had the replays running on the bus TV.
Expand Photo: Courtesy of Liz Phair 17/18 Sleater-Kinney giving laid-back Los Angeles a taste of Portland punch. The Flannel & Fury tour’s talent, energy, and unforgettable moments will stay with me always.
Expand 18/18 Who gets to wear the Jolly Roger hat next?
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Source: Lifestyle
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