Alanis, Matchbox revisit '90s but still move on

They were two iconic, Grammy-winning voices of the '90s — Alanis Morissette with "You Oughta Know" and the record-setting debut
"Jagged Little Pill," and Rob Thomas with Santana's blockbuster single "Smooth" and a bunch of Matchbox Twenty hits.
She had cojones and he didn't. "Don't push me around," Thomas crooned on "Push," one of Matchbox's many mainstream pop-rock hits. "I'm here to remind you of the mess you made when you went away," Morissette brayed in the searing "You Oughta Know," a classic breakup diatribe.
Following brief mid-'00s hiatuses, Morissette and MB20 teamed up Monday night at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul for a long, crowd-pleasing concert that reminded 11,000 fans of the artists' strengths and their desire to grow.
At 33, Morissette is still full of manic energy, untempered vitriol and a big vocabulary. As she paced back and forth across the stage, she purged every relationship gone wrong. She'd throw in big words ("focuslessness") and big ideas ("respite from the toils of illusion") but sometimes her words were necessarily unvarnished (f-bombs).
In her 55 minutes onstage, the Canadian did several of her hits, including "You Learn," "Thank U" and "Hand in My Pocket." She introduced a couple of tunes from her forthcoming "Flavors of Entanglement," her first CD in four years. Both "Tapes" and "Moratorium" were typically intense but more spacey and airy than previous Morissette tunes. Her attempt at humor — a parody of Black Eyed Peas' "My Humps" — misfired live, though it was one of the most hilarious videos on YouTube in 2007.
While Morissette has made a career singing about breakups, Matchbox Twenty had broken up for all intents and purposes. With Thomas already having launched a successful solo career, the group came together last year simply to record one new tune for a greatest-hits package. But the musicians really clicked, recorded six new tunes and decided to continue, with a 33-city tour this winter.
For the seventh show of the tour in St. Paul, MB20 seemed refreshed and sharp. Thomas, 35, was more nuanced, forceful and soulful (especially on "Back to Good" and "Can't Let You Go"). The new songs, including "All Your Reasons" and "How Far We've Come" (which sounded like a political campaign theme), had jangly hooks that suggested Paul Westerberg.
At times, MB20 seemed more exciting than Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' Super Bowl performance on Sunday. But, ultimately, 23 songs over 1¾ hours of MB20's radio-friendly vanilla became a too-smooth pill to swallow.
Jon Bream • 612-673-1719