Like me, you may have missed this September debut altogether, since McLachlan and Jewel canceled their premiere-night performance in support of free speech when Jimmy Kimmel was suspended from his late-night post, and then ABC News Studios canceled the film’s red carpet the day before McLachlan, Jewel, Mýa, and director Ally Pankiw were meant to appear before reporters and photographers. That didn’t stop the film from activating Reddit, however, with one user urging readers to “especially watch it if you thought [Lilith Fair] was for hippie, unshaven, lesbian feminists, because it wasn’t the touchy-feely, hippie dippie concert series mass media made it out to be. It was real rock and roll celebrated in a way that was safe and honest and healthy in a time where other festivals turned into nightmares, like Woodstock ’99, and it created a cultural shift in the music industry.” Truly, I came to that understanding myself the moment we pressed play.
The name rocked me first. Lilith, as McLachlan explains, comes from ancient mythology, where she’s described as Adam’s first wife—made from the same dust—who refused to submit to a man before she fled Eden. I’d never heard a whisper of this, growing up in the Texas Bible Belt! And “fair” is a play on words for equality, gathering, and beauty. It makes so much sense!
I also had no idea that Tracy Chapman, Pat Benatar, The Cardigans, and Dido were part of the original tour. (During that era, I fear that I was more influenced by misogynistic headlines about Paula Cole’s unshaved underarms—now, very en vogue—than by a greater message, or even an artist lineup.) Or that when faced with criticism of having a “lily-white” set, McLachlan came back with artists like Des’ree, Erykah Badu (she brought her baby on tour!), Queen Latifah, and Nelly Furtado. You could watch the film for the historic festival footage alone—of Sinéad O’Connor’s voice piercing the veil, Christina Aguilera’s side-stag debut, or Missy Elliott, who counted Lilith Fair as one of her first-ever live performances, dancing in her iconic inflatable suit after pulling up in a sports car when her bus broke down.
#Sinéad #Missy #Erykah #Live #Concert #Footage #Lilith #Fair #Building #Mystery #Pure #Gold
