From the Archives: ‘Liz and Lisa’
A popular musical duo wraps up a four-year gig.
June 30th, 2026
Campus Dance was a little different for graduating seniors Liz Mitchell and Lisa Loeb. While the rest of the class of 1990 headed for the dance floor, “The Liz and Lisa Band” was up on the Lincoln Field stage, to the delight of the many seniors who are avid fans of the group. Mitchell, the lead singer, and Loeb, singer and guitarist, who have been playing together as an acoustic duet and with various back-up bands since their freshman year, were still coming to terms with their immense popularity on the Brown campus this spring.
“The Fans are great,” Loeb says. “I remember, freshman and sophomore years we were never sure if people were going to come to our shows or not. We put invitations on people’s [post office] boxes to insure a good draw. Even now, it’s surprising to see a place packed for one of our shows.”
For seniors Liz Mitchell and Lisa Loeb, photoraphed earlier this spring, Campus Dance was a working gig. “The Liz and Lisa Band,” performed on Lincoln Field.PHOTO: JOHN FORASTÉ
Lincoln Field was, to say the least, packed.
Their popularity has extended beyond the Brown campus. The duo recorded a predominantly acoustic tape last spring, and it has sold close to 1,000 copies. In addition, Mitchell and Loeb encouraged people to make copies for their friends, so it has been distributed widely.
“Every one of my friends from home who is at another college has heard my tape in someone’s room,” Mitchell says. “Places I’ve never been, my music has been.”
Which is not to say that the two have confined their live concerts to the Brown campus. They have performed at the Living Rom, a Providence club; in Harvard Square; at Sarah Lawrence college; in Grand Central Station; and at the Speakeasy and the Bitter End, two clubs in New York City.
Loeb and Mitchell were freshman roommates. Each had pursued music in high school. Loeb, from Dallas, had been in a band and had performed acoustic guitar extensively; Mitchell, from Scarsdale, New York, had taken classical voice lessons and also had been in a band. The duo was hatched when the two decided to enter a talent show early in their freshman year. Although they never actually performed at the show, they liked playing together and dropped their other musical commitments to continue.
“Liz and Lisa” have organized several concerts with other Brown musicians to benefit Rhode Island Project AIDs. In late March, their “Safe Acoustic Sex Show” drew 250 people to Sayles Hall, and last fall they sold out a benefit concert on campus.
As the duo’s principal songwriter, Loeb compares writing a song to writing a paper. “You go back and forth, you leave it alone for a while, you keep working and reworking it,” she says. Mitchell recalls that during their freshman year, Loeb would wake in the middle of the night with inspiration for a song, and proceed to compose most of it then and there.
“I think I unwittingly draw on personal experience,” Loeb says. ”I'm just writing what comes out. At Brown, I’ve been encouraged by other musicians to take myself seriously as a guitarist and as a song writer.”
“What’s been really great is the opportunity to work with other talented musicians,” says Mitchell, “like Dan Seiden ’89 [a guitarist who has recorded a popular album of his own], Gordon Chambers ’90 [a singer and pianist with whom Liz and Lisa have collaborated on several AIDs benefits], and Dave McLary ’90.”
After their Campus Dance swan song, the duo plan to move to New York where they hope to record an album with the support of a major record company. “We can’t name any names, but a few companies are very interested,” Loeb says.—E.S.
