Lisa Loeb

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Club DV8 - April 23rd 1998

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Club DV8 - April 23rd 1998

On April 23rd, 1998, I saw Lisa at DV8 in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was a nice treat. For one she requested that there be no smoking. I had never heard of anyone doing this, but it really makes sense. Smoke is really hard on your voice. Plus my allergies like the no smoking venue.

Tara MacLean was the opening act. I had heard her name but didn't really know anything that she sang. When she performed I was really impressed and became a fan of hers. I think she especially good live.

Lisa was a lot of fun on stage. At one point a guy in the audience was on his cell phone. She asked to see the phone and then proceeded to talk to the guy's sister, who was listening to the concert over the phone. It was pretty funny.

Another surprise was that Dweezil Zappa played guitar for her on a few songs. I had heard of his dad Frank but I didn't know about Dweezil. He was really good. He and Lisa seemed to have good chemistry like there was more going on than just a show. (That would maybe explain why he was there to begin with.)

After the show was over I hung around out front hoping to have her sign my CD cover. After a while she and Dweezil came out to leave and I got both of them to sign my Tails CD cover.

About Lisa Loeb>

If she had never made another record, Lisa Loeb would still go down in the books as the first unsigned artist to top the American charts; her single "Stay" -- from the soundtrack to 1994's Reality Bites -- spent three weeks at number one soon after the film's release. Born in Dallas, Loeb studied piano as a child but later switched to guitar. At Brown University, she studied music theory and played as a duo with her roommate. After college, she attended Boston's Berklee School of Music for one semester, but then formed a full band in 1990, christened (in tribute to J.D. Salinger) Nine Stories: Tim Bright on guitar, Jonathan Feinberg on drums, and Joe Quigley on bass.

Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories began to gig around the Midwest, playing at Austin's South by Southwest seminar. Loeb then hooked up with producer Juan Patiņo, and in early 1992 released the cassette-only Purple Acoustic Tape, which she sold at live shows. Several major labels showed interest in her, but Loeb remained unsigned by late 1993, when her friend Ethan Hawke asked her to contribute a song for his next picture. Director Ben Stiller decided that he liked one of Loeb's other songs even better, so "Stay" was inserted on the soundtrack. Released as a single in May 1994, it reached number one two months later and eventually sold over 750,000 copies worldwide. Loeb & Nine Stories received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Group, and won a Brit Award for Best International Newcomer. Geffen Records, which had shown interest in Loeb before "Stay," signed her later in 1994 and re-teamed her with Juan Patiņo. Her debut album Tails was released just over a year after her signing, and proved successful with commercial radio as well. Firecracker appeared in 1997, scoring a hit with "I Do."

-- John Bush, All-Music Guide

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