REVIEW
Sarah McLachlan
When: Saturday
Where: Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre
Rating: 4 (out of 5)
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At one point in her career, Sarah McLachlan concerts were large-scale affairs.
That was a necessary evil back in 1997, when she was among the biggest stars in pop music. Nowadays, her live shows are smaller and more intimate, with less pomp. That’s not a bad thing; the new guise suits her, as it did back when she was on the verge of fame. Her music was too personal to be truly effective in a stadium setting.
Victoria had a part to play in this transformation — more on that later — including her scaled-down concert at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre on Saturday night, the beginning of her Canadian tour. The half-bowl setting, before 3,741 fans, felt like the perfect size and scale for McLachlan, 46, who was in exceptional form during her first concert since early August.
There was a personal touch, too. She invited fans up on stage into her “living room” and answered handwritten questions from the audience. “Have you ever hallucinated?” read one question. “Yeah, I think I may have,” McLachlan said with a chuckle. “But I take an Advil and I go bonkers, so I’m a lightweight.”
She is no slouch where music is concerned. The set was heavy on her new album, but her back catalogue was well-represented; Fear was especially good. She also knocked it out of the park on Answer, an unheralded yet excellent ballad from 2003. Though she played acoustic and electric guitar often on Saturday, on Answer it was mostly her and a piano, with solemn backing from her four bandmates.
“If it takes my whole life, I won’t break, I won’t bend,” she sang, her strong, beacon of a voice drawing hollers from the audience. “It will all be worth it, worth it in the end.”
She’s a personal songwriter, to state the obvious, which is why she never seemed at ease in front of 20,000 fans. Though the lights prohibit her from seeing much beyond the edge of the stage, McLachlan knows her diehard fans are nearby, singing along to all the heartbreak and happiness. The closer they are to hear her roar, the better.
McLachlan split the evening into two sets, followed by a four-song encore highlighted by her perennial favourite, Angel. And while she has played many of these hits over the years in Victoria — Building a Mystery, Sweet Surrender, Ice Cream, Adia included — very little felt familiar on this night.
Her last concert at the arena, a similarly sized show in 2011, was in support of her “break-up” album, Laws of Illusion. Her current release, Shine On, is a far happier affair, which may have had something to do with the tone of the concert on this night. It could also have been the influence of Victoria itself. McLachlan is familiar with the city and its surroundings — her parents used to live here — and some of her earliest gigs that weren’t in Halifax (where she was raised) or Vancouver (where she has lived since the late ’80s) were in venues all over the city.
That said, this particular concert unfolded in a manner some of her previous Victoria concerts have not, which is to say nothing felt rushed or rehearsed. She even let fans in on the backstory behind Brink of Destruction, which was written about her relationship with her “sweetie,” Victoria native Geoff Courtnall. It was the former Vancouver Canuck who taught her how to love again, McLachlan said. And with that, her audience was treated to a wiser, more wonderful performance from the much-loved Grammy winner.
Shine on, indeed.
