Indy Live Music

Lilith Fair was a late addition to the Indy Live Music concert schedule.  The deciding factor was the offer of free lawn tickets from the Hamilton Town Center Verizon Wireless store in exchange for an old cell phone for their HopeLine project, which provides the phones to victims of domestic violence.  It's a worthy cause, and it is hard to pass up free tickets!

Lilith started around 2:30, but unfortunatly Mel and I had to put in full days at the 9 - 5 first, so we arrived around 6:00.  In the pouring rain - not exactly ideal for lawn seating, eh?  Since the economy is such that Verizon has been struggling to fill seats at concerts this year, they've been offering $10 upgrades to pavillion seats at a lot of shows.  We took this option to escape the rain, and were soon shedding our fashion-forward blue plastic ponchos and settling into our seats at the back of the pavillion.  While we were finding our seats, we caught the very end of Suzanne Vega's set and heard her sing her hit "Tom's Diner".

After a quick gear change on stage, it was time for Courtyard Hounds to rock Lilith.  If you haven't given this duo a listen yet, I recommend you do so.  Don't worry if you didn't like The Dixie Chicks - Courtyard Hounds are a TON better, and have a different sound.  Some songs are more rock, some evoke the country/bluegrass feel with a fiddle and banjo to the set, but they are all good and worthy of a listen.  There was no mention of The Dixie Chicks until Mary J Blige accidentally made reference to the old name during her set.

And last but certainly not least, it was time for Sarah McLachlan to take the front-and-center spot in front of a very expectant audience.  She wasted no tim taking a seat at her grand piano and performing a flawless version of "Angel".  Then she stepped up to the front of the stage to sing "Building a Mystery", and her new single "Loving You is Easy".  One of my personal favorites, "Stupid" was up next, followed by "World on Fire", "I Will Remember You", another new song that I didn't catch the name of, "Adia", "Out of Tune", "Sweet Surrender", and "Possession".  She then thanked everyone, and left the stage, but no one moved in anticipation of an encore.  Sarah didn't disappoint - she came back out to sing "Ice Cream", then brought all of the ladies who performed on all the three stages to sing their own version of "Because the Night" by the Patty Smith Group.  It was a great ending to a great evening.

Just a few observations about Lilith in general - this festival was WAY under-promoted.  It took until the Thursday before Lilith for radio and television commercials to pop up.  Several shows across the country had to be cancelled due to low ticket sales.  I think this could have been a cash cow if it had been properly marketed, billed as an epic return of something so different from all other music festivals in that it was a celebration of women in music.  We had a great time seeing such powerful female artists all in one place over just a few hours.  There were plenty of vendors and sponsors set up in tents giving away freebies and conducting contests for festival-goers.  Lilith Fair was an all-around great way to spend a day, and I hope it can find the proper support and marketing to continue to be a platform for strong female artists for years to come.  I know we'd certainly be there cheering them on.