Alanis Morissette

I was 11 when Alanis Morissette released Jagged Little Pill. At the time I didn’t know what she meant when she screamed “Would she go down on you in a theater?” in “You Oughta Know,” but I did gather that she was incredibly pissed off at a boy. And I dug it. In the years that followed, Morissette, along with Ani DiFranco and Tori Amos, provided me with the soundtrack necessary to sulk through an angst-ridden adolescence. During my high-school years I took to Morissette’s follow-up albums, which didn’t match the enormous success of JLP—really, how could they?—but were far better written. That’s my argument, anyway, even if they weren’t as . . . angry. And people love them some angry Alanis. The Canadian rocker has plenty of provocative material on her new album Flavors of Entanglement. During its recording, she broke up with her fiancé, actor Ryan Reynolds, who shortly afterwards got hitched to starlet Scarlett Johansson. Ouch. All Morissette’s old “fuck you” anthems, as well as some new ones, are bound to get some play tonight. The Paramount, 911 Pine St., 292-2787, www.ticketmaster.com. $36.50–$62. 8 p.m. ERIKA HOBART
Wed., Nov. 5, 8 p.m., 2008