Best concerts in Princeton history: Elliott Smith

Many know Elliott Smith as one of the most popular and influential songwriters of the past twenty-five years. Many more have remained committed to the artist's music even after his tragic and untimely passing. In the spring of 1997, however, a very lucky few were able to witness Smith's famous live act firsthand when he played at the Terrace Club.

"Elliott's performance was quiet but definitely intense," said Peter DiCola '98, Terrace's social chair who booked the performance. "Elliott himself was very polite, very soft-spoken, and seemed extremely shy."

DiCola, like many others at the time, was a fan of Smith's music and jumped at the opportunity to have him perform on campus.

"Elliott Smith's self-titled album was one of just a few CDs lying around the front room of Terrace on a permanent basis," DiCola said. "People would play it all the time - that's probably where I heard the album first. His music seemed to be universally popular among the members, especially the two or three class years before mine. ‘Either/Or' was released that spring, so Elliott was on the road [promoting the album]. Given his popularity at Terrace, it was easy to say yes to having him come play."

The show itself was an intimate one, befitting the singer's reserved nature.

"[It was] fairly full [but] not crazy or overflowing. This was still a few months before ‘Good Will Hunting' [which included one of Smith's songs] gained him an even larger following."

The crowd, hanging on Smith's whispery, soft delivery, was hushed. "That was one nice thing about quiet shows at Terrace and Campus Club: When the crowd knew and liked the artist, they'd be quiet enough so that you could hear," DiCola said. (Campus was still an active eating club in 1997.)

According to DiCola, some of the highlights of Smith's show were the beautiful ballad "Angeles," which was featured on the soundtracks of "Paranoid Park" and "The Girl Next Door," and the song "Say Yes," an uplifting, cheerful tune that became one of Smith's most popular.

DiCola did, however, have one quibble about Smith's show - and it's one that every music fan can empathize with.

"The show was brief - maybe just eight songs or so before Elliott started asking for requests," DiCola said. "The way he asked, I thought he seemed ready to call it a night. He played a few requests, and the show was over in about 40 or 45 minutes. It was a fairly short set for a headliner, and I have to admit, I was disappointed about that at the time. Now I recognize that someone taped the show and it lives on forever on the Internet, so it sounds greedy to complain that the show didn't last longer. But at root I think that my disappointment is just a reflection of how much I love Elliott's music."