Addicted To Noise Contributing Editor Beth Winegarner reports : OAKLAND, Calif. -- Sarah McLachlan interrupted a recent set at the Paramount Theater to make a serious announcement. She seemed visibly angry and concerned.
"It's World AIDS Day today," she said, and then explained to her audience that the AIDS-awareness organization Lifebeat, which has been touring with her this year since the first Lilith Fair dates, wasn't permitted to set up a booth that night.
"Apparently the manager of [The Paramount] wouldn't let Lifebeat set up a booth in their lobby," she continued, "Because he didn't want 'that kind of element' in his theater. I just found out about it this afternoon. And I've been pretty angry about it. He's an asshole."
The singer then vowed to never perform at the Paramount again.
Peter Botto, general manager of the Paramount, tells another story, explaining that the request to have a Lifebeat booth was made at the last minute and didn't give his staff enough time to plan for it. "We have certain rules discouraging unrelated organizations from taking part in events," he said Friday. "I first heard about the Lifebeat booth when some guy called me up at 5 p.m. the day of the show. We didn't even know if it was legitimate."
Botto said his staff prefer to make arrangements for such informational booths at least a week in advance. "I think the time she spent making those statements could have been better spent discussing the issue," he said. McLachlan's camp, meanwhile, could not be reached for further comment on the matter.
Despite the interruption, however, McLachlan's statements were bracketed by a knockout show, the last on her current tour.
It began as the lights went out and the first bittersweet strains of McLachlan's instrumental "Last Dance" swelled through the dark theater. When its final notes faded, an onstage curtain dropped away and McLachlan herself, backed by a five-piece band, came to the microphone armed with an acoustic guitar. She launched into her summer hit, "Building A Mystery." The crowd shouted approval at lines such as "You woke up screaming aloud."
It was the last night of McLachlan's tour and the second of two nights at the Paramount. Emotions ran high throughout the set as the hostess, organizer and headliner of the much-hyped Lilith Fair seemed buoyed by the chance to share her music on her own, with just her band and the crowd. "We get to ride the emotional roller coaster a bit longer," she promised with a smile.
Although recent fame from Lilith Fair has brought attention to her latest LP, Surfacing, McLachlan's set included songs from each of her four albums. The accompaniment of two guitarists, a bassist, drummer and singer gave tender songs such as "Hold On" and "Good Enough" an unexpected rock-feel and injected new life into them. "Good Enough" even included a powerful guitar-solo by David Sinclair.
McLachlan took turns playing acoustic guitar and piano for much of the night; and first sat down at the piano for "Do What You Have To Do" from Surfacing. McLachlan's pained vocals, paired with her piano tones that resonated through the luxurious venue, were in stark contrast to the song's exploration of withheld emotions.
The band returned for "Witness," featuring the first of several fantastically turbulent guitar-solos from Sean Ashby, who shook distorted notes from his instrument. The lighting team made their mark with "Wait," a twinkling backdrop of starry lights and slivers of white coming down like moonlight, offering the perfect setting to the opening lines: "Under a blackened sky/ Far beyond the glaring streetlights."
After performing "I Will Remember You," McLachlan's heartbreaking contribution to the Brothers McMullen soundtrack, the singer commented on the melancholy nature of her songs. "The more depressing the song, the more I enjoy singing it," she laughed. "I'm not reliving the horror or anything. I'm sort of grooving on where I am now."
The set continued with the spine-tingling "Ice," its intro a gorgeous a cappella featuring McLachlan and backup vocalist Camille Henderson. Keyboardist Vincent Jones added accordion touches before the song went into full-swing. She followed with the breathy "I Love You" -- but not before a woman in the crowd screamed "I love you Sarah!"
McLachlan also performed several songs from her first albums, including a stirring version of "I Will Not Forget You" from Solace, as well as "Path of Thorns (Terms)."
During "Into the Fire," her central refrain -- "I will stare at the sun until its light doesn't blind me/ I will walk into the fire until its heat doesn't burn me" -- was delivered nearly without instrumentation, its powerful message inspiring more cheers from the crowd. She even performed "Vox," her first single from Touch. Following McLachlan's and Henderson's vocal harmonies in the soaring, wordless vocals of the chorus, the crowd stood to applaud.
For her encore, McLachlan and her drummer and husband, Ash Sood, performed "Ice Cream," singing its romantic refrains while smiling to one another: "Your love is better than ice cream/ Better than anything else that I've tried."
She let the audience to take over for one chorus. The night ended with a candlelit performance of "Angel," which found McLachlan alone at the piano again, as she fittingly ended her tour with a song about the hardships of life on the road.
This article was originally published in Addicted to Noise.