Lilith Fair was one of the highest grossing festivals in the world from 1997 to 1999. I attended on its first go-around in 1997, and it remains one of my all-time favorite concert experiences. As a young lady who was obsessed with music — specifically music put out by female artists — the festival empowered and inspired me. I felt a sense of camaraderie among the concert-goers and artists that I had never felt before. When I heard that Lilith was returning for another run in the summer of 2010, I knew I had to go. The show closest to me (Portland, Oregon) had an excellent lineup — Erykah Badu, A Fine Frenzy, Sarah McLachlan, and a new favorite of mine, Lucy Schwartz, were scheduled to play, along with many other musicians I was interested in checking out.
The concert took place at the Sleep Country Amphitheater, which is located in the state of Washington about 20 minutes north of Portland. The amphitheater is one of those big concert venues that have popped up all over the US in the past decade or so. There’s a covered seating area as well seating on the lawn, and the venue’s top capacity is 18,000.
News had come in the day before that 10 dates, mostly in the south, were being cancelled, and the press was abuzz with speculative proclamations that the tour would be cancelled outright. When I arrived at the venue the day of the concert, I saw that there was a huge line to get into the gates at every entrance and the parking lots were filling up. Apparently Lilith Fair isn’t hurting as bad as everyone is saying, I thought to myself. I parked my car and meandered over to the main gate to wait in line with everyone else.
The gates to the amphitheater were supposed to open at 1:30 pm, but unfortunately, no one was let into the venue until at least 2:30. People in the lines were antsy, and there was a 10-minute wait to use the portable toilets in the parking lot. Not exactly an ideal situation — thanks, Sleep Country Amphitheater! Great job.
Once I got inside, things were rather hectic and confusing. I had trouble assessing the lay of the land — a complimentary map of the festival layout would have been helpful. I knew that there was going to be three stages in total: the Village Stage, the B stage, and the Main Stage. Finding the Main Stage was easy, of course, but the two side stages were a bit trickier to locate and were on opposite sides of the venue. The grounds were crowded with tents and booths representing the various charities and sponsors of the tour. Continuing its tradition of donating a portion of the profits from the tour to charities, this year many worthy causes were represented at Lilith, including Bradley Angle House (Portland Domestic Violence Shelter), OxFam, ASPCA, Amensty International, Susan G. Komen For A Cure, Planned Parenthood, Growth Concerns/Neufield Institute, and War Child. I felt a little lost in the sea of tents and people, but I eventually located some people that worked at the venue to help me out.
I wanted to head right over and check out Annie Bethancourt, a local artist that had landed the gig via a contest on OurStage.com. According to the schedule I was given, her set was already under way. Unfortunately, I arrived just in time to see her finish up the last song of her set.
The next performer I checked out was Lucy Schwartz, who followed Annie Bethancourt on the Village Stage. I had been listening to Lucy’s new album, Life In Letters, and her Help Me! Help Me! EP for the past month, and I was really enjoying her classic pop sensibility and playful vocal harmonies. I was pleased to discover that she sounds just as good live as she does on her record. For example, the songs are full of parts in which she harmonizes with herself, and I had been curious how she was going to pull that off onstage. Lucy brought along two fabulous singers — her keyboardist and guitarist — and the three of them sounded lovely together. They nailed the harmonies perfectly. The version of “Gone Away” that they sang was beautiful — a crowd gathered before the outdoor stage watched in rapt attention. At the end of her set, Lucy asked the audience whether they’d rather see her play guitar or harmonica by show of hands. “Who does this?” she said, laughing at herself. The audience overwhelmingly voted for harmonica, and was treated to “Those Days,” one of the songs off of her forthcoming album.
After Lucy’s set, I scurried across the grounds to the B Stage, where I started watching Grace Potter and The Nocturnals, whose set was already under way. Their music is bluesy and rockin’, and they drew in a large crowd. Once I got within eyesight of the stage, it was easy to see why — Grace Potter is a compelling front woman, a commanding and sexy performer. The crowd danced along with her, and stuck around despite the rain that had begun to fall.
I trekked back over to the Village Stage to check out Miranda Lee Richards. By then, the rain was really coming down. Miranda seemed shy, quiet, and slightly sad. The golden glitter she had at the corners of her eyes resembled tears, and as the rain pelted those of us in the audience, I began to feel a little sad myself. Halfway through her set I had to leave to head over to a press conference that was scheduled to happen at 5:10.
I sat down next to my fellow press folks, my hair dripping, my shirt soaked through, and we waited for the performers to arrive. I didn’t really know what to expect. They hadn’t told us who would be at the press conference, and I didn’t have any questions prepared. I came armed with my camera, hoping that the other journalists would be more prepared than me. It turns out they weren’t. If I had to summarize the press conference up in one word, it would probably be awkward — there were awkward moments of silence, and awkward questions that were asked. However, it was definitely a rush to be seated in a little room directly facing Sheryl Crow and Sarah McLachlan. Most of the artists where there, but I was a little disappointed that Erykah Badu didn’t attend the conference.
The artists talked about what it meant to them to be touring with Lilith, and how the festival inspires them. Annie Bethancourt, winner of the OurStage.com spot on the lineup, described how amazing and surreal it was for her to be seated at a table with such “amazing women.” She started to get emotional, and I can’t blame her. When asked how the music industry had changed since the last Lilith tour in 1999, McLachlan replied, “I don’t pay that much attention to the industry…I’m a songwriter.” Sheryl Crow chimed in, discussing how a reduction in album sales due to downloading has people touring more often, and that there’s more competition to sell tickets these days.
I had to duck out of the press conference early to go see A Fine Frenzy play. I had interviewed Alison Sudol earlier in the day, and I didn’t want to miss her performance. Sudol sipped tea in between songs and joked about the rain that was falling. “People often describe our music as ‘rainy day music,’” she said with a chuckle. Her rendition of “Almost Lover” was beautiful in its simplicity, and I loved her spunky performance of “Blow Away.” Despite the rain, a rather large crowd of devoted fans hung around for her entire set. She thanked everyone for braving the elements to support her.
A Fine Frenzy’s set marked the end of the outdoor performances, and I was happy to retreat to the covered seating area to dry off a bit, and ready to take in an evening of Grammy Award-winning artists. The first performer on the main stage was Colbie Caillat. As her set began, I realized that it had been a very, very long time since I had attended a mainstream, high-profile concert event. I’ve been more accustomed to attending shows in little clubs or bars lately. I was caught off guard by the expensive lighting setup, intricate stage backdrop, and gorgeous sound quality. It was all very well done.
Colbie’s voice rang out smooth and clear. The crowd loved her cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way,” and when she sang her biggest hit, “Bubbly” they happily sang along. Justin Young, one of her background singers, filled in for Jason Mraz on the loving duet, “Lucky” and he may have done a better job than Mraz did on the original! While onstage, Colbie shared a cute story with the audience — at the tender age of 12 she attended a Lilith show, and was so inspired by the event that she decided right then she wanted to be a songwriter. She followed her dream and was now touring as a headliner! How positive is that? There were many kids in attendance; I hope she inspired some of them to follow their musical dreams as well.
Erykah Badu was next up. Her set started late, and prior to her arrival on the stage, her band played for a minute or two without her. I started to get nervous that she wasn’t going to come out since I hadn’t seen her at the press conference earlier. Maybe she’s sick? I thought to myself. However, a few moments later she stepped out onstage to a roar of applause from the crowd. As I was up front taking pictures, I was amazed by all the gold she was wearing. She had big rings on both of her hands that covered entire fingers. The rings matched heavy looking earrings and golden bracelets that wrapped around her forearms. The adornments seemed to clash with the sweats she was wearing — but it’s okay, she’s Erykah Badu! She looks like a goddess in just about anything she puts on. The lights sparkled off her gold and it was beautiful — and so was her set!
Erykah really knows how to take a track and give it new life onstage. I could hardly contain myself when she played my favorite song of hers, “Penitentiary Philosophy,” and her funky, extended version of “On & On” had the crowd up, dancing, and smiling. She belted out the songs with confidence and power, and her band was super tight. I can’t wait until I get the chance to see her live again. The short festival set was a tease!
Sheryl Crow followed Erykah’s stellar performance, and she warmed the crowd up even more. Her hits sounded more rocking than they do on the radio — she had a killer band backing her, and they seemed to have great chemistry. I forgot how many hits she’s had over the years, it’s pretty astounding when you hear them played back to back — “Can’t Cry Anymore,” “My Favorite Mistake,” “Every Day Is A Winding Road,” “If It Makes You Happy,” “Soak Up the Sun,” and more. Predictably, the crowd went wildest when she played her signature song, “All I Wanna Do” and they loved her covers of Terence Trent D’Arby’s “Sign Your Name” and Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll.”
Sheryl danced around in a sexy sequined miniskirt, full of energy, smiling like she was having the time of her life. The crowd seemed to be having intense amounts of fun as well — I don’t think I’ve seen so many women over 30 letting loose like that simultaneously! At the end of her set, Sheryl dragged everyone that was onstage with her up front to take a bow, and then she turned around, got on her knees, and bowed to them. What a tough act to follow!
Next up was Sugarland. I’m not a big fan of mainstream country, but there were lots of people in the audience who were. They went nuts — I thought the roof was going to fall in on us! The energy Jennifer Nettles has is astounding! She was all over the stage, jumping in the air, twirling around, and dancing. She’s in great shape, that’s for sure — she didn’t sound out of breath at all.
After Nettles finished blowing the roof off the place, there was an intermission in which a sitcom was played on the venue’s big screens. ABC was one of the sponsors of the festival, and they decided to test Courtney Cox’s new comedy “Cougar Town” on the Lilith audience. They even passed out surveys afterward — it was a really awkward attempt at market research, and I didn’t enjoy it very much. Listening to groups of drunk ladies say “Wooo!” whenever Courtney made a reference to how fun it is to be drunk was pretty comical, though, as was Sheryl Crow’s cameo on the show. I don’t watch sitcoms, so I can’t really judge its quality overall. For most of it I just scrolled through Twitter on my phone and waited for the last act to begin.
Sarah McLachlan’s set started, and it was immediately apparent that this would be different than the last three performances we had experienced. Rather than rocking out, Sarah sang us lullabies to end the night, sending us on our way reflective and calm. She started her set at the piano, playing her beautiful ballad, “Angel.” After that, she moved into “Building A Mystery,” and the latest single off her new album Laws of Illusion, “Loving You Is Easy.” The latter is a sweet, lighthearted love song, and Sarah said that it’s one of her favorites to play. Before each song, she gave us a little insight into what the songs meant to her — it was nice. I personally enjoyed her performance of “World on Fire” a lot, and the explosive moment when she declares, “How stupid could I be?” from her aptly titled song, “Stupid,” sounded amazing live.
After she finished, all the artists were invited to come out onstage for the finale, a group performance of 10,000 Maniacs’ “Because the Night.” Most of the performers showed up, the only ones I noticed missing were Marie Digby (who had performed on the B Stage earlier) and Erykah Badu. Everyone was all smiles as they sang, “Because the night belongs to us!” It was a fun ending to a great festival, and I look forward to seeing what’s in store for next year! Yes, you heard me right, Lilith isn’t done — at the press conference McLachlan said that they’re working on a two- to five-year plan right now. There’s plans to return next year, and they’re researching bringing the tour abroad. Hopefully those plans pan out, and that we see them back for another run.