Sarah McLachlan,
Jones Hall, October 7, 1997
Opening Acts: Madelline Peyroux
Sarah McLachlan played Jones Hall tonight and what an amazing treat of talent. Sarah is
a Canadian performer (originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, currently residing in
Vancouver) who has a beautiful voice, unique style, and an amazing ability to write
sensitive lyrics and diverse melodies.
After a nice performance by opener Madelline Peyroux, who performed jazzy tunes with
only an acoustic guitar and horn accompanying, Sarah and her band took to the dark stage
while in the background strains of could be heard of Last Dance, the last song on her
current CD, which is an instrumental of piano, upright bass, and saw. Sarah pulled no
punches by diving head first into her current hit "Building a Mystery", where
she played electric guitar with her full band, consisting of two other guitars, bass,
backup singer, keyboards, and even a husband on drums (married Ashwin Sood this year).
Even her Labrador Retriever, Rex, got into the act by walking out on stage during the
first number. Throughout the show, Sarah mixed things up, playing acoustic guitar, piano,
or just swaying seductively in front of the mike. She took the audience through Hold On,
Good Enough, Possession, and Wait from Fumbling Towards Ecstacy. She had a great comfort
with the audience first explaining that this was the first show on her own tour (after the
very succesful Lilith Fair finished) and that she had been in LA filming a video which
kept her from several dress rehearsals. She was sporting some chunky boots, which she
described her video director as having convinced her to wear based on Marilyn Manson's
influence (they actually did look pretty cool on her).
She explained some of the motivations for her songs, describing a period earlier this
year when she was just too happy to write. (Of course she was happy, having huge success,
completing Lilith Fair, and having just gotten
married). She received the lyrics for "Do What You Have to Do" from a friend
that had been going through some hard times and crafted a beautiful song of unrequited
love. Seeing her perform it at the piano, one feels her emotion in every word.
Additionally, from Surfacing, she played Sweet Surrender and Witness, among others. She
also added something from her earlier CDs, Touch and Solace.
The Houston crowd got to their feet to encourage Sarah back for more and she treated us
to Ice Cream, a sweet song about the love of people and food. A second encore found Sarah
alone at the piano again for "Angel", a song she wrote about the loss of loved
ones to heroin addiction. Before the song, she told the story of forgetting how to play
the song like on the CD, but then remembering that she had played it in an easy key, only
sped up later when it was mixed in the studio. It was very funny at the time.
Sarah is on with the same management company as Barenaked Ladies, Nettwerk, a Vancouver company. They have done a fine job
of giving her the freedom to create and promoting her uniqueness. Lilith Fair was a huge
success and did much to draw attention to the many talented female performers that we are
graced with today.
During her performance, I found myself on the verge of tears for the sheer beauty of
the performance and wishing I could be her. It is quite an accomplishment in today's music
industry to achieve mainstream popularity with a unique sound and style that comes from
within. Sarah McLachlan is a lovely person, a friend of women, and an immensely talented
performer. I can't wait to see her again this weekend in Boston at Mixfest. Click here for my review of that event.
On That Note, I'm outta here......
C
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