The Lilith Fair Movie

Hulu trailer: rb.gy/mxsvsi

As of this writing, "Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery," is unrated on both RottenTomatoes and Metacritic, there's just not enough data. So the question arises, has anybody seen it?

Oh, the documentary has gotten reviews. Then again, even Sarah McLachlan herself pulled out of performing at the premiere in protest against ABC/Disney's suspension of Jimmy Kimmel.

But I don't think that's the issue.

I think part of the issue is Hulu doesn't have the traction or gravitas of Netflix or HBO, but also...it's an indication of today's era, where everything is niche and nothing is that big. But when Lilith Fair toured the continent, it was peopled by household name stars who had hits all over MTV. You may not have liked their music, but you knew it!

And you knew what these women looked like.

In retrospect, Lilith Fair was a last hurrah for the pre-internet era, even though at that point the internet was burgeoning, albeit on dialup. I went to the initial show with a woman I met on the internet, at the Starlight Bowl in Burbank in 1996, it was a test run. Ron Fierstein, the manager of Suzanne Vega, who was on the bill, hipped me and got me tickets. It was a "tryout." I didn't get it, because a hit is a hit, and Sarah McLachlan had had some, as had Susanne Vega, and Paula Cole was bubbling up, isn't that enough?

OF COURSE IT WAS!

The following year was the first full-blown tour, and then it continued for a few years and then it was over, this film says because Sarah McLachlan was burned out. I buy that, after all it was her tour.

At the end of the film, Brandi Carlile is on stage at the Gorge, and she says it's Sarah McLachlan's house, and then she brings Sarah out, and I got goosebumps. I guess that's the power of a star, that's the power of music.

One other high point I must mention is when the Indigo Girls and the assembled multitude do "Closer to Fine" and drop out for the chorus and then the audience sings it, loudly. This was not a thing in the nineties, although it's de rigueur today.

Today...

The funny thing is the script has flipped, you've got men complaining the charts are dominated by women. In some cases, like Sabrina Carpenter, evidencing the sexuality that men used to trade on, that they used to own.

But that's today, and Lilith Fair was yesterday.

There's an overarching theme here, about the little engine that could, a lineup of women, could they sell tickets. Then there's the bonding and safety of women. And I can understand all those elements, but I went for the MUSIC!

The second time I went to Lilith it was at the Rose Bowl, and the second stage was outside the stadium. I remember going out there to hear Billie Myers do "Kiss the Rain," and K's Choice perform "Not an Addict," and then when the song broke, there was this bass thump and then a vocal that pierced the atmosphere, reached all the way outside the stadium and grabbed me, it was Sinéad O'Connor performing "I Am Stretched on Your Grave." I ran, literally RAN through the tunnel to see and hear Sinéad, who evidenced a power that most males never achieve.

She's gone now. And her later years were turbulent, but here we still have the young Sinéad, who supposedly ruined her career by ripping up a photo of the Pope on SNL. But all these years later, you see Sinéad in the film, you hear her talked about, and you realize she was brave, a trailblazer who inspired other women.

The film starts with Sarah talking about her sheltered upbringing. Ultimately learning how to stand up for herself and say no when necessary via Lilith.

And she was not the only one who had a learning experience, one performer informed another.

Joan Osborne is told not to talk about Planned Parenthood from the stage in Texas, and then she wears a shirt emblazoned with the logo of the organization. She was anything but meek.

But, Paula, Shawn and Sarah are forced to do a medley at the Grammys as opposed to each getting a solo slot, even though they were all nominated and the male nominees got to play alone. It made me think of Ken Ehrlich and his "Grammy moments." I don't think Ken even thought of sexism, but the three women...they debated refusing to perform. They ultimately took the stage, but they're still thinking about it.

And the endless backlash, the endless jokes. We live in a different era now, where internet hate is rampant, but this film is a great demonstration that you should never listen to the feedback, that people are out to get you, they make fun of you because they're jealous, don't adjust.

As for backstage... It looked like summer camp, made you want to be involved.

As for the set-up... They do a good job of delineating the players and showing them at work. Terry McBride as the manager, Marty Diamond as the agent and Dan Fraser as the road manager. I've seen a lot of rock docs, but this is the best when it comes to conception and execution, what a heavy lift it is. You've got an idea, will promoters buy it? And then you go out on the road and as smooth as it may appear on stage, hellzapoppin' off it, unanticipated problems are rampant.

Every day there's a press conference, where idiots ask inane questions. Maybe rock critics had cred in the sixties and seventies, but that was gone even before the internet.

Meaning if you're an act you must listen to your inner tuning fork, because most other people just don't know, don't kowtow to them.

So I think everybody watching "Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery" will take something different from it. Some the female angle, some the gay angle, some the business angle...but for me it comes down to the music, writing a good song is the hardest part of the enterprise. And then reaching people with it comes next. Very few have the talent, very few.

And as the movie was winding down, I wondered if they'd mention the failure of the 2010 revival of Lilith Fair. Stunningly, they did. They said singer/songwriters were over, but if you ask me the problem then was time had passed and Sarah was just not that hot anymore, and you need a hook, you need a headliner.

Today?

If you're a star of Sarah's caliber you play arenas, you may even be able to play stadiums. But the funny thing is most of the public, outside of the attendees, may be familiar with your name at most, as for your music...they may not even be able to name one song.

The film may be about female breakthrough, standing up to an entrenched male society, disproving conventional wisdom, but I must say what hit me most was these were all big stars, and they may even still be around, plying the boards, but their hit eras are over. None of them are having hits today. Did they all just lose the muse? Or maybe the perspective should be like above, today no one has the ubiquitous hits of yore. But for me, it showed cycles. After all, this was nearly thirty years ago. THIRTY YEARS! A lot transpires in thirty years. New acts come along. With the same hunger of the old ones, maybe even inspired by the old ones.

So, have we made progress? There's the #MeToo movement, but there are still men who pooh-pooh music made by women, who think they and the male acts can do it better. The truth is they're just insecure. Unlike so many of the men, the women on the Lilith bill did not depend upon production, studio wizardry, they could sing and play their songs and...

I was watching thinking if this were the old days and this film was licensed to MTV it would be played ad infinitum, and become a cultural institution, bedrock. But today? Everything comes and goes, marked by lovers and styles of clothes. Yes, Joni had it right.

Will your jaw drop watching "Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery"?

It's not that kind of film. But I got an e-mail from a woman saying she shed a tear and I didn't wholly get it until the end, when Sarah took the stage with Brandi at the Gorge.

You know if you need to see this movie.

Will it influence younger generations? Who knows how and why things spread today.

But one thing is for sure, when you wipe away the business and social elements Lilith was peopled with talented stars, whose music drove audiences to them, both men and women.

That's the message for me. Not that women are doing it for themselves, but that women are EVERY BIT AS GOOD AS MEN!

And these women proved it.


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