Alanis Morissette smiles through decades of anger at Saturday Saddledome show
The Canadian icon performed at the Saddledome Saturday night, blending her signature rage with activism, opening with 'Hand In My Pocket' and closing with a fiery 'You Oughta Know.'
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Alanis Morissette took the stage at the Saddledome Saturday night as a 52-year-old mother of three, delivering much of her polished show with a smile—yet the rage that launched her 31 years ago remained intact.
She opened with the opening lines of "Hand In My Pocket" sung offstage, giving the song a hymn-like quality before segueing into the defiant "Right Through You." Eight songs came from her 1995 breakthrough album Jagged Little Pill, which introduced the world to a woman who could rage against the machine as credibly as any male rocker. "You Oughta Know," the album's first single, served as an appropriate pre-encore closer—still scorching after three decades.
Morissette wove activism throughout. A lengthy opening video highlighted her advocacy, including clips of her discussing the value of anger as a force for change. During "Right Through You," the Jumbotron displayed statistics on harassment, sexual violence, and gender inequality. A brief flash of text featured alternate pronouns—a moment of quiet solidarity in front of tens of thousands at the Calgary Stampede.
While songs like "You Oughta Know" and "Right Through You" earned her a reductive "angry-chick" label, she crafted infectiously melodic songs borrowing from folk and 1970s radio. "Ironic," "Mary Jane," and "Head Over Feet" still land with thousands singing along.
Morissette often played snippets of deeper cuts before launching into full versions of her bigger hits—an efficient structure, though complete versions of tracks like "Sympathetic Character" would have been welcome. Between-song chatter stayed minimal throughout.
