Sarah McLachlan
Jul. 6th, 2004 10:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walbournIt has been almost exactly five years since the last time I saw Sarah live in concert, which was during the third and last Lilith Fair in 1999. The wait between Surfacing and Afterglow was more like six years.
The concert last night at the Key Arena was the first show of Sarah's North American tour, and a large crowd showed up to see her live. It used to be that you could count on Sarah's concerts drawing a crowd befitting the summer concert series she created referred to by some critics as Lesbopalooza, a predominately young female audience whose energy filled the room with adoration for the performer and reflecting the personal passion of Sarah's music. Six years later, she has definitely become a 'mainstream' artist. Perhaps the long hair and being married to a guy reduced her hardcore lesbian following somewhat...
The opening act, Butterfly Boucher, was fun although between the acoustics of Key Arena and the Aussie accent, it was impossible to follow her lyrics. A good match for Sarah's sound in general, and I had heard Another White Dash on the radio a few times. Will need to hear more of her stuff to determine if her lyrics are inspired or insipid before purchasing her album.
One section of the floor looked more like her hard-core fans--and not surprisingly were the only ones spending significant time standing during the concert--and the rest was a much broader swath of people. Girls didn't significantly out-number the boys, and there were significant numbers of couples in their 40s in the stands. I wondered during the concert if these people had heard her early stuff.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jeliza commented that with this audience, Sarah could even skip playing Possession without getting lynched since they might not have heard it. Did they know the story behind Hold On, I wondered. Were these the men those women from six years ago married and settled down with, just as Sarah had escaped to the Canadian wilderness to raise babies?
The set was one David Bowie would have been proud to play on. It included fake stone-work floor coverings, fake moss patches, elaborate suspended and lit cloth giving the impression of hewn trees, a system of rear-projection monitors showing close-up video of the performers and visualizer effects on a suspended curtain of refraction lenses worked into one of Sarah's designs, three dedicated spot operators in the hanging racks, two raised sections made to look like worked stone, and a big hollow tree-trunk lit red that gave the impression of a volcano. My first thought on seeing the set being unveiled was the Spinal Tap "STONEHENGE" set-piece ("Where the little people dwell. It's where they live and they do live well!"). Like the first leg of her Fumbling tour, she had a huge band (drummer, vocalist, two keyboardists, bassist, and guitarist) backing her. It turned out that the tree trunk/volcano had a second drum kit hidden in it that was raised and lowered several times during the performance--I guess it helps to be married to the headliner when it comes to getting your toys included on the tour. I counted something like four tour busses and an equal number of semis out back. That's a crazy-big set to trundle around sixty shows this summer.
Sarah came out dressed in her usual simple fashion: jeans & purple long-sleeve shirt. There was plenty of between-song babbling from our long-lost Canadian girl, expressing the nervousness she and the band felt after so many years out of the big-concert circuit. She said something like, "You hope that you have loyal fans, but six years is a long time to wait between albums... I'm just glad to see so many people came to the show. Thank you!" The audience responds with roaring applause ("You are welcome, hon, we love you. Now, play more of our favorites from Fumbling!").
The set covered every song on Afterglow, a few from Surfacing (building a mystery, sweet surrender, adia, witness, angel), a few favorites from Fumbling (ice, hold on, ice cream, fear, fumbling towards ecstasy), "I Will Remember You", and a cover or two. She didn't stick with her traditional three encore structure and instead did one extended encore and a shorter single song one--I think she realizes that we aren't young enough to clamor more than once or twice for an extended period of time. I was thrilled to hear her perform Ice, although I wish there was a chance in hell of her doing Steaming live.
Sarah's music spanned a tumultuous period in my life, and many of her songs hold a special meaning to me. There was a time when I couldn't hear "I Will Remember You" without getting emotionally worked up. The intensity is no longer there for me, and instead is more like a visit from an old friend. It was fabulous to see her again, though clearly her audience has shifted over the past five years. I wonder if she will start up Lilith Fair in a year or two.
The concert last night at the Key Arena was the first show of Sarah's North American tour, and a large crowd showed up to see her live. It used to be that you could count on Sarah's concerts drawing a crowd befitting the summer concert series she created referred to by some critics as Lesbopalooza, a predominately young female audience whose energy filled the room with adoration for the performer and reflecting the personal passion of Sarah's music. Six years later, she has definitely become a 'mainstream' artist. Perhaps the long hair and being married to a guy reduced her hardcore lesbian following somewhat...
The opening act, Butterfly Boucher, was fun although between the acoustics of Key Arena and the Aussie accent, it was impossible to follow her lyrics. A good match for Sarah's sound in general, and I had heard Another White Dash on the radio a few times. Will need to hear more of her stuff to determine if her lyrics are inspired or insipid before purchasing her album.
One section of the floor looked more like her hard-core fans--and not surprisingly were the only ones spending significant time standing during the concert--and the rest was a much broader swath of people. Girls didn't significantly out-number the boys, and there were significant numbers of couples in their 40s in the stands. I wondered during the concert if these people had heard her early stuff.
jeliza commented that with this audience, Sarah could even skip playing Possession without getting lynched since they might not have heard it. Did they know the story behind Hold On, I wondered. Were these the men those women from six years ago married and settled down with, just as Sarah had escaped to the Canadian wilderness to raise babies?The set was one David Bowie would have been proud to play on. It included fake stone-work floor coverings, fake moss patches, elaborate suspended and lit cloth giving the impression of hewn trees, a system of rear-projection monitors showing close-up video of the performers and visualizer effects on a suspended curtain of refraction lenses worked into one of Sarah's designs, three dedicated spot operators in the hanging racks, two raised sections made to look like worked stone, and a big hollow tree-trunk lit red that gave the impression of a volcano. My first thought on seeing the set being unveiled was the Spinal Tap "STONEHENGE" set-piece ("Where the little people dwell. It's where they live and they do live well!"). Like the first leg of her Fumbling tour, she had a huge band (drummer, vocalist, two keyboardists, bassist, and guitarist) backing her. It turned out that the tree trunk/volcano had a second drum kit hidden in it that was raised and lowered several times during the performance--I guess it helps to be married to the headliner when it comes to getting your toys included on the tour. I counted something like four tour busses and an equal number of semis out back. That's a crazy-big set to trundle around sixty shows this summer.
Sarah came out dressed in her usual simple fashion: jeans & purple long-sleeve shirt. There was plenty of between-song babbling from our long-lost Canadian girl, expressing the nervousness she and the band felt after so many years out of the big-concert circuit. She said something like, "You hope that you have loyal fans, but six years is a long time to wait between albums... I'm just glad to see so many people came to the show. Thank you!" The audience responds with roaring applause ("You are welcome, hon, we love you. Now, play more of our favorites from Fumbling!").
The set covered every song on Afterglow, a few from Surfacing (building a mystery, sweet surrender, adia, witness, angel), a few favorites from Fumbling (ice, hold on, ice cream, fear, fumbling towards ecstasy), "I Will Remember You", and a cover or two. She didn't stick with her traditional three encore structure and instead did one extended encore and a shorter single song one--I think she realizes that we aren't young enough to clamor more than once or twice for an extended period of time. I was thrilled to hear her perform Ice, although I wish there was a chance in hell of her doing Steaming live.
Sarah's music spanned a tumultuous period in my life, and many of her songs hold a special meaning to me. There was a time when I couldn't hear "I Will Remember You" without getting emotionally worked up. The intensity is no longer there for me, and instead is more like a visit from an old friend. It was fabulous to see her again, though clearly her audience has shifted over the past five years. I wonder if she will start up Lilith Fair in a year or two.
