Alanis Morissette blows the flysheet clean off the Marquee

By Joe Dermody

Like an AC/DC roadie who stumbled upon Courtney Love's hen party and stayed rolling with them through to the jagged end, do we all look back upon nights in our lives where we're unsure just how real that was?

Well, Alanis Morissette blowing the flysheet clean off the Marquee definitely wasn't one of those nights.

She was better than that. This was the kind of night where Harry the AC/DC roadie met Sally the Courtney bridesmaid and spend their lives talking about it.

Packed to capacity.

Admittedly, it felt like the ratio was 4:1 female:male, but who's complaining? Packed.

Some of her 1990s post-punk fans had to remove some of their eye-liner just to squeeze in.

Was there an appetite for Alanis in Cork's chimeric summertime Big Top?

Well, this show fully sold out in zero time. And boy were they all glad they leapt early to buy.

Alanis rocks. She walks the walk, and boy does she talk the talk, but not a lot; she mostly lets the music do the talking.

"How're you doing, Cork?" she asks.

Big roar. "Great." And that's enough of that. For now.

Who needs talk with such a great set? And with more hits than we remembered and plenty of other goodies.

Fab atmosphere here at @LATMofficial for @Alanis #Cork #LiveAtTheMarquee #AlanisMorisette pic.twitter.com/ice7m9zvmn

— Catherine (@MeeCatherine) July 4, 2018

Hand In My Pocket, You Oughta Know, Thank You, Uninvited, All I Really Want and, of course, Ironic.

Yes, Jagged Little Pill was a great album. We all knew that at the time.

What we didn't know was how well it would age. Like a proud oak.

This audience has aged well too. Morissette's appeal has endured, so there's all ages, all sorts here. They know and love every word of every song.

And she has a great look too.

Hair cropped short but back to black after her dalliance with peroxide, and a 'red flounces and frills' blouse that Prince would have been proud of.

On stage at 9pm sharp like all the great pros. Start like you mean to go on.

Like Dylan, Sting, Roger Waters and all the other giants who've walked these plains.

"It's great to be back here, we've really missed you," she says, then introduces the band.

And it did feel like a band, not just the backing band.

Those with tickets for Thursday night's show in Iveagh Gardens are in for a real treat.