REVIEW | Fans loved this Sarah McLachlan concert.

While the crowd was too demure to be said to have gone wild when Sarah McLachlan took the stage at GM Place on Friday night, they made it clear they were very happy to see her. Friday’s show was the last performance on McLachlan’s summer tour, and as she looked out at the audience during her opening chat, she happily declared that she thought the Vancouver crowd was the biggest she’d played to in nine weeks. She seemed pleased to be arriving home to such fanfare.

Afterglow, 2003.

The set design was a little bizarre.

Imagine faux marble pillars wound with the roots of gnarled trees and moss-covered stairs, combining to form a somewhat Halloweenish scene. Nonetheless, the show was an incredible success. At one point near the end – immediately following a show-stopping performance of Building A Mystery – the audience began applauding determinedly and continued to do so for over a minute, leaving Sarah laughing, unable to start her next number, and obviously a little surprised. In the end, she gave the band the signal to begin the next song, regardless, forcing her fans to quiet down.

It was a moment very indicative of McLachlan’s career.

Simply put, her fans adore her.

Since the release of her first album (1988’s Touch) her number of supporters has grown exponentially. She’s sold more than twenty-two million records. And won three Grammys. And was the founder of the massively successful (if a little controversial) Lilith Fair. Those who worship at the altar of Sarah are legion.

After seeing her perform, this makes sense.

McLachlan worked hard to keep her audience happy.

She told the GM Place crowd that she’d chosen this tour’s performance numbers because they’re just the ones she loves to sing, but also said that she hoped the show would offer a little something for everyone. It did. At twenty-three songs (not including a sweet little rendition of You Are My Sunshine), McLachlan gave concertgoers their money’s worth. On stage for nearly two hours, she played everything from newer hits Fallen and World On Fire to plenty of successes off her 1997 album, Surfacing – including Angel, Adia and Sweet Surrender, in addition to the aforementioned Building A Mystery. Classics like Hold On, Possession, and Ice Cream were also given fair play.

McLachlan can seem somewhat remote (huge stars often do), but she endeavoured to be both accessible and funny.

She prefaced a lovely rendition of Afterglow’s Push – a song she said she wrote for her husband (drummer Ashwin Sood, who also gave a great performance) – with a self-deprecating description of the difficulties of her married life that included the sentence, “I was a bit of a bag.”

Between that, the quality of musicianship, and a hilarious introduction to the tour’s crew that had them rushing on stage like groundskeepers at a baseball game (complete with Playskool lawn mowers and a few pink flamingos, which they left behind), it was a highly enjoyable concert.

Standing ovations are not uncommon at live shows of any kind. (Embarrassed concertgoers are often forced to stand by a few eager beavers near the front.) But McLachlan’s two ovations seemed genuine. Even after twenty-three songs, her audience was eager to hear more.

As far as the markers of success go, you can’t do better than that. –Jennifer Selk, Special to the Sun.

A version of this Sarah McLachlan concert review was published in the Vancouver Sun, September 11, 2004. Original headline “Sarah McLachlan doesn’t disappoint legion of fans”. See below.

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Published September 11, 2004 in The Vancouver Sun.