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TORONTO - To be a singer who's commercially and often critically successful is a rare feat, but to say that when you're only 34 years old would put you in extremely select company.
And sure, she might want to forget that Too Hot phase which put her on the map, but singer Alanis Morissette has crafted a lot of strong albums based on an array of different musical flavours.
It's that same flavouring which the singer, touring behind her new studio album Flavors of Entanglement, brought to the stage last night at Massey Hall.
But it appeared as if she really had to catch a plane or was in some rush to finish.
Following an introduction which had the band onstage but Morissette's voice recorded, the singer, dressed in tight fitting jeans and a purple top, started the proceedings with Uninvited, a track containing plenty of drama and weight in its lyrics.
She also began the first of many dances when not singing, head-banging like she was listening to Pantera with her waist-length hair swinging round and round.
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From there, she began slowly but surely dipping into the new material such as the decent Versions of Violence. However this paled compared to Tapes which was performed near the homestretch, a gentle, quasi-power ballad track with Morissette belting out the closing lines.
It was at this point though that things seemed to be overtly sped up. After completing her vocals, the five-piece band fleshed out the song as several roadies began constructing a smaller, "unplugged" acoustic setup in front of them. Often done after a song's conclusion, team Morissette decided to get it done as soon as possible.
Regardless of how seamless and smooth the 90-minute show was, Morissette, pacing the stage constantly and occasionally holding out her microphone to the near capacity audience, shone on the punchy All I Really Want from her mega-selling album Jagged Little Pill and on the catchy, mid-tempo Not the Doctor.
The song that came off the best, aside from her warhorses that have taken her around the world, was Sympathetic Character. Despite starting like it was going to fall flat, Morissette and crew slowly built the tune up as she once again danced on the spot.
As for the one which might have been best avoided, the aptly titled Moratorium with its somewhat airy feel went nowhere quickly. In fact, a moratorium should be placed on the song for future gigs.
After a rather stilted few moments to You Oughta Know, Morissette managed to still infuse a lot of bite into the song. The same was also true for the encore when You Learn and Thank U brought many fans finally out of their seats.
But a short acoustic segment which wrapped up the main set seemed oddly placed given the power of the tunes performed. Hand in My Pocket came off as a slow, country affair while So Pure, a song which talks about loving watching people dance, had the singer content to shake a leg from the comforts of her stool.