Concert for Toronto

I decided to visit Toronto to see Sarah McLachlan at the Concert for Toronto, a concert put on to ignite interest in Toronto after the SARS scare. Overall, the concert was OK but was unlike any concert I've ever been to. The concert took place at two venues: Air Canada Centre and Skydome. One set of artists were actually present at one venue while the other set could be viewed through satellite feeds. Here was the lineup:

Air Canada Centre:

Glenn Lewis
Remy Shand
Jann Arden
Diana Krall
Sarah McLachlan

Skydome:

Swollen Members
Sum 41
Our Lady Peace
Avril Lavigne
Barenaked Ladies
The Tragically Hip

Here's my review of the concert (written 6/24/03):

"Sarah's performance was very wow worthy. I've only seen Sarah twice, at the BCCF concert in Vancouver and Concert for Toronto, and she definitely was 10 times better than last November. I think the quality of Sarah's voice and the band was about the same. The major difference between the two was the energy and confidence she had. It was like I was hearing the songs for the very first time - every lyric and note resonated through me. It was extremely emotional for me, especially during Angel (I managed not to cry, though!). But not counting Sarah's performance (or Jann Arden's or BNL's), the concert was a bore. The BCCF concert was 100 times better. For one thing, a lot of the acts at the Sky Dome just sounded awful (which could be a function of poor acoustics at the Sky dome or poor video feed quality at the ACC). The two worst sounding were probably Avril and Sum 41 (what a bunch of arrogant a-holes!). Also, this concert lacked collaborations between bands (except for during Jann and Sarah's sets) and the order of the performers was totally out of whack at times (i.e. Jann Arden then Avril then Diana Krall then BNL?).

For me, the concert only got interesting when Jann Arden came on stage. She was her usual funny self (even making a few cracks at Celine Dion) and sounded incredible. The duet with her and Sarah on "I Would Die For You" was awesome. She introduced Sarah as "having been on Knots Landing for 24 years" and then went on to say that they both had purchased new brassieres to mark the occasion. I'm hoping that their collaboration on this song will be released at some point. Bringing Sarah in on this song just totally gives me goose bumps and is way better than the album version.

I also saw India (Sarah’s daughter) at the concert! I probably couldn't identify her in a police lineup but I still saw her! We were seated in row 17 or 19 in section 109, which was to the left of the stage and facing the hallway where performers came in and off stage. During Diana Krall's set, I noticed a woman who looked a lot like Sarah carrying an infant and a man who looked a lot like Ash playing with the baby in the hallway. At one point, it looked like Ash was playing peek-a-boo with her! From what I could tell, it looked like she has Sarah's wavy/curly hair. Being as far away as we were, I really couldn't see much but it was really cool to see Sarah and Ash interacting with their baby.

BNL were pretty fun, as usual. Their set seemed really short, though. But it also didn't help that they were having problems transmitting sound to the ACC at the beginning of their set. It was also really annoying when Sarah's band came on and started testing her setup. But since Sarah sounded awesome, they can be forgiven for that goof up.

As for Sarah's performance, she was awesome and totally rocked the ACC (you totally could tell that most people were there just for her). I think the full set list was something like this (order of songs is probably way off):

Possession (what a way to start)
Building a Mystery
Fallen
Wait
I Will Remember You (w/ Diana Krall and Jann Arden)
Ice Cream
Hold On (with "Sunshine" intro - similar to how she ended it at the BCCF concert)
Adia
Sweet Surrender (awesome!)
FTE (very awesome, especially since I wasn't expecting it)
Angel (encore - I had read in an article in a Toronto paper that the folks at the Sky Dome booed her for the encore, which really blows)

In regards to Fallen, I think it could be a single. It's a slow song but after hearing it a second time, it really started growing on me. I still have the tune stuck in my head so I hope she does release that new CD sometime soon! I think the chorus went something like "you tell me I'm the only one blah blah blah you come here blah blah." I might be totally off on the lyrics but that's how I remembered it! In regards to the release date of the new CD, I did see some optimistic signs at the concert. For one thing, Sarah kept saying that she was happy to be back a number of times."

I didn't take my camera to the concert (big mistake since photography was allowed) but here are some photos that I found online or scanned from various Toronto papers: