BY CHRIS VARIAS
Enquirer contributor
Luscious Jackson plays to the large crowd at Riverbend.
(Michael Snyder photo)
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The official line says Lilith Fair is a celebration of women's music. If Saturday's show at Riverbend was a celebration of anything, it was of Sarah McLachlan.
The Canadian singer, also the founder of the multi-act traveling festival, delivered the headline performance that most excited a large, adoring crowd. Ms. McLachlan's set, nine songs short, was concise and packed with the material that as of late has been ruling any number of radio formats.
Besides Ms. McLachlan's hits, other material in the seven-hour-plus show went over well with the crowd, such as the nasally delivered poetry-rock of Natalie Merchant and the light funk of Luscious Jackson. It was a predominately female crowd and a patient and loving one; applause and yelps of approval were indiscriminately rewarded. But it was easy to see Ms. McLachlan was the star. She was the only act the pavilion crowd stood for throughout.
The Spice Girls have girl power. Ms. McLachlan has power over girls.
She smiled and laughed as she acknowledged the other Lilith acts and thanked her audience between songs. Her happy-go-lucky demeanor made the overwrought melodrama of her lyrics and especially her singing seem all the more a put-on. But the young girls loved it, cheering songs like "Angel" and "Black and White." And if the young girls' moms didn't love those, they loved radio and video staples like "Building a Mystery," "Sweet Surrender," "Adia" and "Possession."
Nothing pandered to the girls as shamelessly as Ms. McLachlan's "Ice Cream." A love song with lines like "your love is better than ice cream" and "your love is better than chocolate," "Ice Cream" only lacked the line "your love is better than Ally McBeal."
Many daughters and moms took trips to T-shirt booths during Emmylou Harris' set, the day's best. Those who remained seated kept silent for Ms. Harris, because they either were bored by the lack of pop music or spellbound by her pretty singing and white-hot Spyboy band.
Ms. Harris and each member of the three-man band lined up in a row along the lip of the stage, including her amazing drummer, Brady Blade. This was a treat, as he played right alongside the equally entertaining guitarist Buddy Miller -- "the killer Bs," Ms. Harris called them -- so the viewer could watch them both do their stuff. It wasn't your average Emmylou Harris country band. When Mr. Miller wasn't ripping off tasty little honky-tonk fills, he was matching Ms. Harris' air-light voice with his own atmospheric guitar magic.
Mr. Blade's loose-limbed assault on his drum kit during a rendition of Kate and Anna McGarrigle's "Going Back to Harlan" ended with him throwing his sticks to the ground and pounding out the song's last few bars with his hands.
Things were less inspired elsewhere. In addition to the pavilion's main stage, two smaller stages were set up, sharing space along the concourse with a makeshift coffee stand and information booths sponsored by women's groups and liberal-leaning concerns.
The two most memorable acts on these stages were the Captain Beefheart-meets-Li'l Abner surreal hokum of Victoria Williams on the B Stage and the sweet, unadorned singing of New Zealander Bic Runga on the Village Stage. Ms. Runga's voice was maybe the prettiest on a bill filled with pretty voices.
A supposed hallmark of Lilith Fair is artist collaboration. When Ms. McLachlan's husband, Ashwin Sood, who is also her drummer, appeared with a video camera in hand at the B Stage's sound board for Chantal Kreviazuk's set, it appeared something was up. Sure enough, Ms. McLachlan and Ms. Merchant trotted out to sing "Leaving on a Jet Plane" with Ms. Kreviazuk. The two stars' surprise appearances caused a near-riot, as girls gave up their places in line for a Frappuccino to rush the stage for a better view.
Poor preparation marred a couple collaborations. Ms. Harris came out to sing with Luscious Jackson on "Why Do I Lie," but "sing" is too generous. She enunciated no single word, only adding a "woo-hoo" or two to the chorus, nothing one of the security guys along the front of the stage couldn't have done.
Almost everyone who played Saturday stepped upon the main stage after Ms. McLachlan's set for a super-encore. The tune was Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On," and the microphone was passed from singer to singer. The song was a giant party, spoiled only by Des'ree's turn fronting the band. The R&B-pop singer apparently didn't have enough time between her 7 p.m. set and the midnight finale to get the words down -- she sang her verse with a crib sheet in hand.
Riverbend refused to provide the attendance figure.
