Date: Fri 13-Aug-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

Lilith-McLachlan-Meadows-Crow

Full Text:

One Final Return For The Lilith Fair

(with photos & graphic)

BY SHANNON HICKS

HARTFORD -- It will probably be very bittersweet for Sarah McLachlan when she

and the rest of the Lilith Fair 1999 entourage pull into Commonwealth Stadium

in Alberta, Canada, later this month for the final date of this year's

traveling festival.

McLachlan began her traveling summer festival four years ago. While the first

year of Lilith was on a much-smaller scale than what it has turned into,

Lilith has become a success in all meanings of the word. The full tour, with

female musicianship the focus of the festival, has been the highest-grossing

concert tour of the past two summers and looks to remain at the top of that

ladder this year, its final outing. Its popularity, and its roster of

musicians performing on different dates of the tour, has grown with each

summer.

On August 4, The Lilith Fair returned to The Meadows Music Theatre in

Hartford. The drought that has punctuated this season was kinder last

Wednesday, temperature-wise, than the state has been seen lately, which made

the all-afternoon festival very enjoyable even before the first note left the

Village Stage.

With a stunning performance from McLachlan to close the show, the eight-hour

event fulfilled all expectations.

McLachlan performed a set that barely dug no deeper than her last two studio

albums, Surfacing and Fumbling Towards Ecstasy , but with songs like "I Will

Remember You," "Building A Mystery" and "Fear" among them, it was a set that

was well worth waiting for.

McLachlan performed ten songs of her own, followed by a one-song encore with

"Angel," and then led what has become a Lilith tradition when she was joined

onstage by the Lilith headliners of the day. Last week in Hartford, this

included Lisa Loeb, Sheryl Crow, Chrissie Hynde and members of her band, The

Pretenders, Aimee Mann, and members of Dance Hall Crashers.

In addition to the tradition of closing each Lilith Fair concert with a group

appearance on stage, there is another practice that has accompanied each

Lilith performance for three years. A press conference is held prior to the

first onstage performance, where McLachlan presents a check to a local women's

shelter in each of the markets the fair performs in.

Lilith organizers decided two years ago that $1 from each ticket purchased for

each market's concert would be donated to a chosen shelter. This year

McLachlan presented a check to the Network Against Domestic Abuse before

opening the Hartford Lilith Fair.

The August 4 Mainstage show was great from start to finish. Lisa Loeb

performed in her almost child-like voice. Sheryl Crow, in her first appearance

in Hartford with Lilith, was a welcome change to the fair's Connecticut

itinerary. And Chrissie Hynde, along with The Pretenders, rocked big time.

When The Lilith Fair pulls into Alberta on August 31 for its final show, it's

going to be a bittersweet one not only for McLachlan, who will wrap up the

tour she helped create in her own home town, but also for all the fans who

have seen any of the fair's three years of touring. By the looks of the fans

who turned out for the Hartford show, it's going to feel like there is

something missing when Lilith doesn't pull into town next summer.