i never wrote a real review of this show, but here's a little something i sent to a friend: monday, we went to lilith, which was so much fun! we saw ig, natalie, sarah, tracy bonham, heather nova, missy elliott, & others. when i was watching imani coppola on the 2nd stage, my friend, dana said to me, "isn't that emily?" so i was like, "where? where?" and then i looked & saw amy, w/ her beautiful blonde gf, watching imani! (dana was like, "oh, i always get amy & emily confused! :) so i walked over near her, since it wasn't that crowded. i just stood next to her for about 10 min., just enjoying the fact that amy ray was standing right next to me. my other friend, jen took pics of us from where she was standing (far enough away so amy wouldn't notice, but close enough for decent pics.) she said it looked like i was just hanging out w/ amy! heheheheh! after imani's set, some people asked amy for autographs, but she said no. then some guy started trying to give her a tape of a band or something, so i just lingered & listened to her talk. i was too shy to say anything though, & a girl next to me kept telling amy how important ig was to her, & amy just nodded a little & said thanks, but didn't seem too interested, so i figured it was best just to be polite & respect her privacy. after that, we saw heather nova, & after her set, she did a signing, so we got pics w/ her & i got her to sign my cd. when we went back to our seats, missy elliot had come out into the crowd, & she was seating in a seat right near us w/ a portable mic, singing away, so jen got a close-up pic of her. ig's set was cool, but the audience wasn't as into it as they are at ig shows or as they were w/ natalie & sarah. the soc after scooter boys was great though! and the water is wide w/ sarah & tracy was beautiful. natalie was so much fun to watch b/c she had all these props & kept dancing around w/ them! and sarah was wonderful, as always. a review of lilith from my local paper, the bergen record (sorry the spacing is screwed up): At Lilith, virtue lives in harmony with fun Wednesday, July 15, 1998 By BOB IVRY Staff Writer Here's one reason Lilith Fair will emerge as the most popular concert tour for the second straight summer: In its 7 hours of overstimulation, the "celebration of women in music" mixes earnest world-saving with good clean fun. At Monday's sold-out musical showcase at the PNC Bank Arts Center, which featured 11 acts on three stages, it was difficult to steer clear of the world-saving. Before the festivities began, Sarah McLachlan, Lilith's founder and spiritual den mother, presented a $16,000 check from the concert's proceeds to the Women's Center of Monmouth County. Lilith promises to repeat the practice for the benefit of other women's charities throughout its 46-city, 57-date tour, which visits Jones Beach today and Thursday. On the arts center grounds, a maze of booths was set up to snare signatures on petitions, recruit volunteers, and educate the uninitiated about noble causes like Amnesty International and breast cancer research. Commerce, too, staked out a prominent place. Henna tattoos, aromatherapy, and hemp clothing were peddled. Tower Records set up a mini-store stocked exclusively with female artists. Murmurs, McLachlan's fan club, distributed McLachlan merchandise catalogues that offered McLachlan wall calendars ($15), "Fumbling Towards Ecstacy" videos ($25), and pendants ($30) designed by the Canadian singer. Oh yes -- there was music, too. For the most part, that accounted for the good clean fun. One of the happy byproducts of Lilith's 1997 success was its subsequent ability to attract a diverse musical lineup, evidenced by the appearance of hip-hop impresario Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott, who joined a main-stage bill that also included Tracy Bonham, Indigo Girls, Natalie Merchant, and McLachlan. Two other stages gave exposure to lesser-known acts. One of them, the "B" stage, featured the most satisfying and intimate performances of the evening. Imani Coppola, wearing glitter makeup and a bright green Pippi Longstocking wig, sang catchy, sunny songs like "I'm a Tree" from her "Chupacabra" album. Rebekah, a folk singer supported by a rock-and-roll band, gave a reggaefied rendering of the Rolling Stones' "Get Off a My Cloud." And Heather Nova, a petite, sandy-haired beauty, sang cello-backed, confessional airs punctuated by crunching electric guitars. On the main stage, Bonham kicked things off by providing the evening's lone set of hard rock, mixing songs from her 1996 debut, "The Burdens of Being Upright," with tunes from the upcoming "Trail of the Dust Devil." ("Who here remembers 1996?" Bonham joked before launching into "Mother Mother," her radio hit of that year -- "I'm hungry/I'm dirty/I'm losing my mind/Everything's fine.") Then, Elliott's considerable support team took the stage. The producer-songwriter-singer-rapper brought along her own miniature Lilith Fair, with eight women dancers, three women singers, and a pair of women rappers to complement a bevy of male musicians. Elliott made her entrance dressed in what appeared to be two inflated black Hefty bags, punctuating the funky flow with her fluid raps and haughty interjections like "say what?" and "check it." Flanked by her energetic dancers, Elliott shed the plastic bags, revealing beneath them a red-and-white jumpsuit with an "M" on the chest. Armed with a cordless mike, the Virginia native waded into the crowd. Then, after dipping backstage to change into a white pinstriped zoot suit and a white fedora, Elliott once again strode into the audience, made a revolution, then exited for good. Scheduled for a 45-minute set, Elliott performed for just 20 minutes, but they were 20 memorable ones. The Indigo Girls -- women's festival perennials Amy Ray and Emily Saliers -- followed, performing crowd-pleasers like "Galileo" and "Tried to Be True" for their vocal fans and bringing a host of colleagues on stage for "Closer to Fine." Merchant was next. Her soporific new album, "Ophelia," uses the Shakespeare character as a kind of jumping-off point to explore an assortment of female personalities. They include a nun, a suffragette, and a circus performer. Too bad none is a pop singer. Gone are the days of the 10,000 Maniacs, the band whose cheerful musical touch could temper Merchant's often leaden profundities. Instead, while prancing barefoot across the stage, Merchant delivered solemn meditations like "How it all began/the fall of man/the price we pay." It was almost enough to make you run screaming for the relative light-heartedness of the Amnesty International booth. There's no denying Merchant's talent. She could entertain by singing the proverbial phone book (after "Ophelia," that might be something for her to consider), but when she delves into spiritual matters, she turns dour. Ironically, that's the terrain upon which McLachlan is most solid. Her subjects are often ponderous -- doubt, sin, revelation, redemption -- but she's never gloomy. Occasionally obliterated by loud waves of audience approval, McLachlan sang, "Will we burn in heaven/like we do down here?" Against all odds, her soaring soprano lent a hopeful, energizing tinge to the sentiment. As McLachlan (who promises to "give Lilith a break" after 1999) ran through her song list -- "Sweet Surrender," "Possession," "Ice Cream," "Building a Mystery," "Adia," others -- it became clear what may be her greatest triumph: making a daunting and sometimes disheartening task like saving the world seem an awful lot like fun. Copyright © 1998 Bergen Record Corp. some more reviews from the list: Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 00:10:03 -0400 From: Rebecca Bergknoff Subject: PNC lilith Alright I've never done a review before, so i don't know what to say. I do know the entire setlist, and it's in order, I was copying it down while they played. Okay here it is: Tried to be True -that new funky version some people have been talking about. Galileo Kid fears-it seemded that Amy and Emily were waiting for the audience to do the Stipe part, but no one did. I have a really really bad voice. I'm so tone deaf, so I didn't want to sing at the top of my lungs all by myself. It's Alright SYS-another newish version Ghost Scooter Boys(short soc) Gotm Water is Wide-Sarah, I'm not even going to try to spell her last name(my spelling's as bad as my singing), and Traci Bonham were on for this one. I think after this song, or maybe CtF, Sarah and Amy hugged. Sarah kissed Amy's cheek, then began wiping, I guess the kiss, off. It was pretty funny. CtF -Okay a little note. I thought I had been lucky because my first 3 IG shows I've been near the front. Well, I'm NOT! I'm gonna cry, my little sister who was with some friends of hers MET AMY RAY!!!!!!Ackk!!! NOT ME! I ran into my sister after it had happened. I was with my mother, and I couldn't believe it. This girl who at least every other day I disown met Amy. I gotta like her now because here's what happened. My sister is not a huge IG fan, so she saw Amy and walked right up to her. Looked at her for a little, then asked are you Amy Ray? If I was there I probably would have kept a bit of distance, and I would have been too shy to say hi. So my little sister, gotta love her for this :) says my sister LOVES you. Amy goes yeah, and smiles and nods at my sister. Now for an even cooler note. My sister and I look very much alike, even though we're seriously from different worlds and we wear different clothes. So later on during the concert, when the jerk staff wasn't watching, I would go up to the stage to shoot some pictures. One time I was up there and Amy was walking my way to go get another gutiar. I think she saw me taking her picture. Coolness. But I still would give all my pictures of Ig just to stand next to Amy for a little while like my sister. The lucky girl. At newport, I plan on getting one of those kiddie leashes to attach her to me. Maybe some of her luck will wear off on me, and I can meet Michelle Malone AND Amy AND Emily. Okay guess that wasn't a little note. Anyway, today was good, I just wish IG played for longer. RB Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 02:18:16 -0400 From: jennifer snow Subject: ig set list (13 july-lilith) etc. let me tell you how hard it was to be at a show and not be able to dance...although during the girls' set, i didn't particularly pay attention to those who were sneaking in from the lawn, so i suppose my boss had every right to remind me not to dance... their set was amazing, as always. it made me smile and laugh, well, it made me glow actually...and a gorgeous "ghost" made me cry... here's the set list, which i jotted down, on my arm, though i'm sure i shouldn't have been doing that either... tried to be true galileo kid fears it's all right shed your skin ghost scooter boys get out the map water is wide (!!!) w/sarah and tracy bonham closer to fine w/assorted lilithesses the girls' set was so impressive that even my good friend evan, who always professed that in order to like the indigo girls you had to be a "birkenstock-wearing lesbian" admitted to me that he got the chills when they sang. i drove him home after the show, and i noticed that he left my car with my "1200 curfews" disks!!! and though i knew he was always kidding with the stereotypical-teenage-boy assumption, he made sure to apologize for ever doubting my taste. * Jennifer B. Snow * * jensnow@juno.com * *You've got your whole life to do something, *and that's not very long." --Ani DiFranco* Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 10:20:42 -0400 From: "Davidson, Leigh Ann" Subject: ok...get ready to be jealous :) First off I must say that the story you are about to hear is totally the truth, I SWEAR!! :-) Ok, so I went to see lilith at the PNC arts center in New Jersey yesterday...it was a great show (IG could have done a little more old stuff, but that's not the point of this post) Anyway, my friends and I got up to watch Heather Nova...she was great...when she was done my friends and I walked back to our seats...unfortunately, my one friend who isnt really into IG at all got there before me...but there were two people in our seats (there were 4 of us)...my friend somewhat rudely asked them to get out of our seats but noticed that one of them had an artist tag on them...Lo and behold, MISS AMY RAY WAS SITTING IN MY SEAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She was with some blonde chick that I didn't recognize. Needless to say, I almost passed out from the excitement. Who knew she was a Missy Elliot fan (that was who was on stage when she was watching)?? Also unfortunately, Amy was not into meeting people or taking pictures or signing anything...but a friend of mine kind of snuck a picture in. Anyway, that is my story...it is totally true...and I am still shaking a little from the whole experience! :-) Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 17:50:48 EDT From: Jennifer Ackerman Subject: Re: ok...get ready to be jealous :) In a message dated 98-07-14 16:38:42 EDT, ldavidson@asabenefits.com writes: << .Lo and behold, MISS AMY RAY WAS SITTING IN MY SEAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She was with some blonde chick that I didn't recognize. >> i was also surprised to be looking 4 some seats when amy walks right by me...we exchange some hellos and had a brief convo....it was cool...but she was obviously interested in spending time with the ? chick who was beautiful....she was also refusing to sign anything or take pics while other performers were on...what class!!! Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 13:52:09 -0700 From: Kathleen Mulhern Subject: Re: ok...get ready to be jealous :) At 10:20 AM 7/14/98 -0400, Davidson, Leigh Ann wrote: >my friend somewhat rudely asked them to get out of our seats >but noticed that one of them had an artist tag on them...Lo and behold, >MISS AMY RAY WAS SITTING IN MY SEAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So what happened? Did she get up or did you let her sit there? What did she say when your friend asked her to leave? What did you guys do? >Also >unfortunately, Amy was not into meeting people or taking pictures or >signing anything...but a friend of mine kind of snuck a picture in. And what does this mean? Did you ask her for a picture and she refused? Was she rude to you guys or what? Did she just get up and leave or did she keep sitting there? Sorry about all the questions, but I'm VERY curious! -Kate :o) Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 19:12:40 EDT From: Susan Elliott Subject: Re: PNC Lilith ryb@eden.rutgers.edu (Rebecca Bergknoff) wrote: >Kid fears-it seemed that Amy and Emily were waiting for the audience to >do the Stipe part, but no one did. Not true!! I know I was singing as loud as I could as was everyone else I was with (orchestra section - right center). I also heard others throughout the venue as well. I will admit it wasn't as loud as Galileo & CtF. I actually sang along with every song and I have no voice to prove it! I had such a good time. I thought it was an excellent set. I was hoping to hear Ghost and my wish came true. I always dread coming down from an IG high. ~Susan Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 09:47:48 -0400 From: "Davidson, Leigh Ann" Subject: Re: ok...get ready to be jealous :) Kathleen Mulhern > wrote: >So what happened? Did she get up or did you let her sit there? What did she say when your friend asked >her to leave? What did you guys do? She got up since my friend practically made her get up...if I had only gotten there a few seconds earlier (before my friend) I would have given her my seat :-) I don't think she said must...according to my friend, Amy was shocked that my friend didn't know who she was... >And what does this mean? Did you ask her for a picture and she refused? Was she rude to you guys or >what? Did she just get up and leave or did she keep sitting there? Once she got up, she and her blonde friend stood at the back of our section against the railing...I went up to her then to see if I could get a picture but she said 'not right now' cause she was watching missy elliot...she did not seem too happy to get kicked out of her seat... >Sorry about all the questions, but I'm VERY curious! That's ok, I like talking about it...most of my friends are not big ig fans, so I think they are sick of me talking about it :-) -leigh