Date: Fri, 15 Aug 1997 00:37:59 -0400 From: Andi Subject: Scranton LF review (long!) Lilith Fair in Scranton was *amazing*...despite the rain, my friends & I had such a good time! Montage Mountain sold out (17,000 tickets) for the second time ever (the first was Lollapalooza '92 w/ Pearl Jam). I saw Michael's & Marci's reviews, so I'll try not to repeat anything they said. We had 15th row center, slightly Emily side. Because of the rain, all of the second stage acts were on the main stage, which was much better for me, since I was already up close, & I could see perfectly. Yung Chen Llamo was too small & quiet for the main stage, but she had a beautiful voice & sang in Tibetan. She reminded me a little of Ulali. Patty Griffin was really good. My friend gave me a copy of her CD, Living With Ghosts (which I highly recommend), so I knew a few of her songs. Lisa Loeb surprised me & was also great. I knew some of the songs she played from the radio, but I loved her new songs also. She talked a lot in between songs & was really cute...she joked about the Coors Lite plane that was flying around Montage being her backup music, since her band wasn't there. Shawn Colvin was also wonderful. The rain really started to come down hard during her set (& everyone whipped out their rain gear, which made the crowd really colorful), & she started singing a song about rain & drizzling & puddles & stuff, which was pretty cool. I don't even think her band knew it b/c they just stopped playing & let her play alone. The crowd went crazy at Sunny Came Home, of course, but people were attentive during her other songs too...she played a lot of stuff from her new album, & a couple old songs too. She was pretty funny too...my favorite Shawn comments were, "Why do harmonicas always smell really skanky?" & "Sometimes wetness is a good thing." And then IG came out! It rained on & off during their set, but I barely noticed. I wrote down the set list, even though the ink was running b/c the paper got wet. Michael & Marci were close, but a couple songs were out of order...here it is: Least Complicated Three Hits Get Out the Map Shame on You Tried to Be True Galileo Scooter Boys The Water is Wide Closer to Fine Michael wrote: <!)>> Amy's tattoo actually reminded me a little of Ani's w/ the black line things. Amy's jeans were the ones she wears in Watershed...I forget what part, but she defintely wears them. Emily's shirt was a Rage Against the Machine shirt. If anyone cares, Sara Lee was wearing a black shirt, jeans, & the Sara Lee red shoes. There were lots of references to the weather! At one point, Amy said that after their set, she'd go out in the rain so she could feel bonded w/ us. During LC, during the "I'm just a mirror of a mirror of myself" line, Emily said, "Here comes the sun." And then she introduced GotM by saying, "Here's a song about the sunshine!" Amy messed up when she started playing at the beginning of Galileo, but then she just looked at Emily & laughed. TtbT w/ Sheryl on accordian was really cool. The Water is Wide was absolutely beautiful. Jewel, Sarah, Amy, & Emily harmonize so well it gave me chills. CTF was equally amazing. Everyone must have been studying the lyrics b/c they all knew them this time! Lisa, Sarah, & Jewel all sang verses. Jewel came in after Sara's pennywhistle, & she started to sing, but Sara was still playing, so then she just started yodelling, which was really cool. When Lisa sang the "head against a board" line, Sarah put her hand up against her head, which made me laugh. It was just so great to see everyone singing together & having fun. The crowd seemed to like IG, but no one around me really knew the words. My friends & I were the only ones who came in on TtbT & Galileo. When the audience finally started singing on Galileo, Amy said something like, "That's it!" I took lots of pictures too. They searched me as I came in, but they didn't find my camara, & no one stopped us from taking pictures, even when we walked to the front & took a couple from there. They were taking away umbrellas as people walked in, & as we left, there was a whole pile of them waiting to be claimed. I've always wanted to hold up a sign, & since we were so close, we decided to bring one. My friend made it, & on one side it said, "Will La Salle be rescheduled?" (the La Salle show was supposed to be in April, but it was rainy & windy, so it got cancelled), & the other said, "Can we sing w/ you on CTF?" We held up the first sign a few times & they didn't see it, but then Emily looked at us, read the sign, & just shook her head & shrugged her shoulders as if to say, "Sorry, I don't know." Then she said, "God bless y'all," or something. (I actually didn't hear her say that, but my friends swear they heard it.) Then Amy said something to her, & she said something back. It looked like Amy was asking what our sign said & Emily was telling her. We held up the other side, but either they didn't see it or didn't acknowledge it. We were just excited that Emily read the first side! During CTF, the people in front of us asked us what the sign said & kept asking questions about it, which I thought was pretty rude. If we're big enough fans to make a sign, why would we talk to them during CTF? Anyway, after IG, a woman came over to us. It turned out that she was the head of activies or something from La Salle & wanted to know if we were La Salle students. We told her that we went to Penn, but we had tickets for the La Salle show, & she said that they're trying to reschedule it, but if there was bad weather again, they have nowhere to hold the show, so they're trying to find somewhere. She gave us her card & told us to call her when we get back to school for more information. After IG, my friend & I ran up to the front & called Sulli's name, & she waved, & we were hoping for a pick or a set list, but she just finished cleaning up. There were a couple of picks still on the mic, but somebody took the mic away w/o giving out the picks. After that, we felt like the show was over & it was time to go home, but there was more! Jewel was great. She played some new stuff, which was rocking! And she changed her older stuff a lot, so it sounded really cool. Before Angel Standing By, she said that she wrote that song when she was living in her car, & now she's on stage, so she told everyone never to give up hope. Her last song was a yodelling song, which was pretty funky. Sheryl was also pleasantly surprising. She played a lot of stuff the audience knew, & she was wearing a cowboy hat & joked about having hat hair when she took it off. Sarah was a perfect ending to the show. She played 5 old songs & 4 new songs, all of which were beautiful. The funniest thing was when I said to my friend, "Sarah's wedding ring is really simple" (I was looking through binoculars), & she said, "She's married?" & I said, "Yeah, to Ash, the drummer" (who had purple hair, btw), & she said, "Don't laugh, but is Ash male or female?" I said, "Male!" & she said, "Well, you never know!" Hee hee... The Ice Cream encore was just Sarah, Ash, & someone else, & Sarah let the audience sing a little, which is always fun. Sarah also thanked all the people working for Lilith, the performers, & the audience for coming, & especially for sticking through the rain. Everyone seemed to thank us for sticking through the rain! And of course, today was a beautiful day in Scranton...it's too bad the show wasn't today! Okay, I think that's it! Overall, it was an amazing day. (Even though we got extremely wet & muddy!) To quote Emily (from an article in the Scranton Times), "It's just a joyous event...And it's as fun as hell." If anyone booted this, I would love a copy...I have lots to trade! :) Andi -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- Andrea Lipman e-mail: ablipman@sas.upenn.edu homepage: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~ablipman "There's so much to see through, Like our parents do more drugs than we do.... They preach that I should save the world They pray that I won't do a better job of it."-Dar Williams _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_