Schedule:

Having made homage to Lilith last July 9th at Irvine Meadows in Irvine, California, I saw the opportunity to attend a second time in Calgary, Alberta on Friday, 22 August as a great way to share the experience with my Canadian friend, and write a non-scholarly "compare and contrast" piece.

We were staying at a rustic log cabin bed & breakfast called Silver Willows Lodge on Bragg Creek, an upscale artisan enclave some 40 miles west of Calgary, and had no difficulty finding the venue, McMahon Stadium. The west lot was already full, but we circled and had easy access to the east parking lot for a CDN $5.00 fee (about U.S. $3.50). Better yet, we had parked the Voyager van in under 5 minutes, and were about 100 meters from the entrance gate. In Irvine, parking was $7.00, for a place in a meadow that had bottleneck entrances and exits, and was a good 20 minute walk from the venue.

Nettwerk had promised guest list seating, but upon checking with will call, no tickets had been set aside for us. I was not troubled by this fact, as we had already purchased reserved seats for CDN $35.00 (U.S. $25.00), just in case we might need them. The concert was far from a sell out. All ticket windows were open, there were no lines, and refreshingly, no scalpers. One shy girl asked me if we needed to buy an extra ticket because one of her friends couldn't make it. Unlike Southern California, there were no limousines pulling up to the gates, disgorging teenage girls in their stylish finery. Nor were there media reporters, remote satellite camera up-links, or any of the frantic activity, signs and talismans seen at Irvine.

Carrying a heavy denim blanket suitable to keep Man Of War warm and cozy after running the Kentucky Derby, and with long-sleeved shirts, sweatshirts, and camping jacket added to the stockpile, we approached the gates thinking that it will take forever for them to search us. Instead, we were greeted with a smile and a "hello" and just walked it. It was my first surprise. Wackenhut guards too young to shave stood around trying to convey authority. They looked bored, all four of them. This was the security contingent for a venue that could handle 25,000 if sold out. The evening's programs had gotten lost in the mail, the ticket taker later told me, and seemed appalled by the oversight. So it was on to find our seats.

There were no ushers, no secondary ticket checks (as in Irvine), no spread out lawns and rolling hills. McMahon is a no nonsense football stadium. My friend told me the team's name, the Calgary Stampeders, which is of course, a mortal rival of the Edmonton Eskimos. First we passed through the food concessions. I was looking forward to again seeing the Thai, Greek, Mexican, grilled corn, broiled chicken and other exotics offered at Irvine, expecting that the vendors followed the concert circuit. The reality was that there were hot-dogs, burgers, fries, popcorn, Cokes and beer. Yet another surprise for this California dreamer. It was easy to find the aisle to our seats, and climb the twenty steps up to them. They were already occupied, but soon became vacant again. Canadians are so polite and decent. We stowed our arctic gear underneath, and sat down.

I took out my concert binoculars and scanned the stage, but couldn't see anything. We were in the East stands. As a general rule, the sun meanders over to the west towards the afternoon. We were temporarily blinded by it. Though it was 18:00 here in Alberta (6:00 p.m.), the sun would not sink below the stadium seating until 21:00 (9:00 p.m.), and keep the sky light for yet another hour after that. When my eyes finally adjusted, I noticed that large numbers of seats were empty, and later estimated the crowd at about 15,000. There was no one sitting in the west stands across the field behind the stage, presumably so that the performers wouldn't have to play into the sun. But the biggest surprise of all was that the general admission seating was on the tarp covered gridiron itself, between the stage and the reserved seating, unlike at Irvine where this area was on a grassy hill behind and to the left of the higher priced concert bowl seating. One of the performers, Shawn Colvin would emphasize this, and make a joke about things being "backwards" here. I suppose yet another surprise was the weather. It was hotter than Miami Beach, and no bottles of coconut oil or palm trees were in sight. I prayed for a blizzard, or one of those Canadian arctic fronts that the Weather Channel always diagrams so well, to move in so that we could make some use of the extra gear, but it was not to be.

Before anyone took the stage, I scanned the audience, looking at T-shirts. There were a few from Tori Amos concerts, a scattering of the souvenir CDN $25.00 Lilith Fair shirts, and the rest were dressed in more conventional attire. There was no one else wearing a black and purple Milla (Jovovich) shirt like the one I had on, and I only had to explain once who this woman was, who was pictured on the front of my body. A few people had tattoos and body piercing, but they were in the minority. For the most part, this was a much older crowd that in California, 30's-50's were in the majority, with an even distribution of men to women -- definitely a well-behaved family audience. At Irvine, about 70% of the crowd were females, and the average age was probably in the low twenties.

The General Admissions folks were another breed. Clouds of blue marijuana haze hung over them, while they kept multiple balloons batted around in the air. Off to the left of the infield, at the South end of the field where the goal posts would be, was the smaller Second Stages, which unlike at Irvine, we could view and hear clearly from our seats, without having to trek down to it if we wished to remain in the stands. I never did actually locate the Village Acoustic Stage, but assumed it was also somewhere in the infield. Arriving around 6 p.m., we had already missed performances by Camille Henderson, Sarah's backup singer, Oh Susanna, Tara MacLean, Dayna Manning, and a local Calgary folk artist named Danielle French -- a trade-off for opting to hike and take a leisurely lunch instead.

We were glad to be seated in the clearer, smoke-free air, and settled in to hear Paula Cole whose music I had been playing for my friend. Instead, Lisa Loeb took the main stage. There are very few female acoustic performers that I dislike, but I make an exception for Lisa, and apologize in advance to her many fans, all five of them over the age of 14. Substituting Lisa Loeb for a talented, vibrant, wonderfully vivacious performer the likes of Paula Cole is akin to having Dr. Ruth Westheimer fill in for Madonna. In fact, Dr. Ruth would have been a bigger hit here, and more on topic. Living down to my expectations, Lisa began by lecturing the dancing, pot-smoking crowd in front of the stage to be more considerate of others on the field in back of them, and suggested that they sit down or even watch by lying on their backs. This went down with the crowd like two-day old Budweiser that had been standing in the sun. Some people started to heckle her, and I could hear her say that she didn't have time to continue this discussion right now, as she had to perform! Good thinking, Lisa. Our friends from the North are polite, but not THAT polite. She accompanied herself on guitar, her band "Nine Stories" (named after Catcher In the Rye reclusive author J. D. Salinger) was absent. Immediately I could tell that the sound levels were set too high (no sound checks?) and that the sound coming from the single bank of circular stadium speakers, suspended directly over the center of the infield on steel cables, was distorted. After her first set, nobody applauded, other than the 4-5 people already mentioned. This was a good time to make a foray for refreshments.

There were no lines at the food stalls, not a very promising sign. I think it must have been the heat, or the exotic (for me) venue, but I found myself pumping mustard and relish on two hot dogs, that looked like they were more from Nanook of the North than Nathan's. With two Cokes, the total came to CDN $8.00 (about U.S. $5.50), an unusually fair price for concert faire. Back upstairs, my much wiser friend passed on the wiener, but took the Classic Coke. I finished off one doggie to Lisa's hit tune "Do You Sleep?", and tried to benevolently offer the spare hot-dog to any takers. Canadians are a cautious lot, especially when it comes to ptomaine poisoning. Finally, one young lady took the offering, and promised to hold it in reserve until later. I had my doubts.

Finally her set was over. There were polite applause. Soon Mary Jane Lamond took the tiny Second Stage off to our left, at one end of the infield. Her CD called "Suas e!" is available on A&M. She is a small (in stature) person, but a very wonderful and abundant talent who sings exclusively in Scottish Gaelic. I made a note to look for her album and follow her music.

When Mary Jane had finished her set, my friend and I decided to wander the infield before Shawn Colvin came on. Trustingly, we left all the extra outerwear behind. This was a good crowd, in a good country, on a fine summer night. One of those hunches told me that Kathleen, who was from Edmonton, was going to meet someone whom she knew. Soon, my intuition proved correct, as I heard "Well, what are you doing here?" being spoken to my friend. It was a distant relative who had recently moved to Calgary. We looked in on the Nettwerk and Borders tents, and passed others that dealt with family planning, spousal abuse, and other important issues. Then we walked closer to the stage, but were deterred by the density of the blanket sitting audience, and headed back to our places upstairs.

Without introduction, Shawn Colvin stepped up to the mike, and opened with "Steady On", the title song from her first album, and a favorite cut for me. I had never seen her perform live before. She is a compact, slim yet muscular but very feminine South Dakotan whose presence is electrifying, and had the crowd's total attention. This was also an audience that was respectful and quiet during each number (very different from the boorish, short attention span, talkative and restless California crowd), but who would break into waves of applause and shouts of appreciation after each set. Shawn joked with the crowd, told the standees in the infield how lucky they were to be up close instead of way in the back (as at Irvine), and promised not to report them for any of their illicit activities. They loved her, as did my friend and I. She also asked the guys at the sound board to adjust her base, which was totally distorted, but as far as I could tell, no action on this was ever taken. Lulled by the music, and bathed in the golden light of the low hanging sun, the rest of her set was a blur. I think she may have ended with "Sunny Came Home" from her new CD, A Few Small Repairs. She left the stage to very loud applause.

As it got darker, the stage lighting and beautiful Lilith Fair backdrop scrim could finally be seen. The energy levels, and the pace of the performance also seemed to accelerate. By the time Indigo Girls (Amy Ray and Emily Saliers) did their set, they were truly in the spotlight. I had seen them perform live once before, on a cool summer's night by the bay in San Diego three year's ago, to an audience that appeared to be composed of 90% lesbian couples. In any setting, they are truly amazing performers. They opened with "The Power of Two" from their Swamp Ophelia album, again one of my favorites. We were all entranced by their music. At some point during their set they invited Lisa, Shawn and Sarah to come out and join them on stage, to do a few songs ensemble. In the now dark night, they were the jewels that sparkled and shone. I am not that familiar with their music, and did not take set list notes, but it was wonderful.

Finally it was time for Sarah McLachlan to finish off the day's music with her own set. The audience was ready. They gave her a roaring welcome. She was the star, and they loved her. Everyone I spoke with on my trip about Lilith Fair, had friends that would be at tonight's performance, and wished they could be here also. I'm not sure what it is about Sarah, but her voice and music evoke such strong feelings within me, as if they were locking into a primal energy stream. Often I find tears running down my face when she sings. She opened with "Possession" from her Fumbling Towards Ecstasy album, still among my very favorite CDs. The night was still, but you could hear and feel that wind she sings about "blast from across the great divide." In fact, she did several songs from that album and her newest CD Surfacing, which deals with some of the darker issues in her life that she often hints at. What a treat it was to hear her perform again. Unlike Irvine Meadows in California, the crowd here were totally still. They had come to hear Sarah, to adore her, and of talkers there were none.

At 22:45, I think after "Hold On" had ended I did something I had never done before at any concert. We got up and left before it was over. This was partially from the memory of the Irvine Meadows parking lot experience, where it took us well over an hour to exit the venue, but more out of concern and respect for my friend who had done all of the driving on our holiday, and still had to maneuver some very dark country roads to get us back to Silver Willows Lodge. It took us less than five minutes to find our van, and in no time at all we were on the highway. As we drove, and talked about the performers we had just heard, I looked up at the night sky which was cloudless, and the brilliant stars that saturated it. I thought again of the music, and for a moment, everything seemed perfect.