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When musicians gather together to raise funds for cancer research, it is easy to imagine a show filled with tears - especially, as with this evening's show, since cancer directly touched the lives of every headliner on board. While the night was repeatedly emotional, there was also much love, laughter and patriotism in the room; you couldn¹t swing a hockey stick without hitting a Canadian flag, and if you drew blood, it would most definitely have bled red, white and maple-leaf shaped.
This five-hour musical event - featuring Sarah McLachlan, Barenaked Ladies, Bryan Adams, Jann Arden and Chantal Kreviazuk - was unique in its success and direct in focus. The history-making show was the highest-attended fundraiser ever held on Canadian soil (a $1.5 million one-night stand), with all the money earmarked for a new cancer clinic based in British Columbia. The event wasn't a traditional show by any means, more of a musical merry-go-round with the five acts performing almost as many times collectively as they did alone on their own songs.
The benefit kicked off with Chantal Kreviazuk admitting nervously "this is going to be a very emotional night." Her piano-driven set was backed entirely by Sarah McLachlan's own band, including husband/drummer Ashwin Sood on percussion. Three songs in, the collaborations began. First, the Barenaked Ladies accompanied her on "Before You". Up next, the unequivocal crowd favorite Sarah McLachlan arrived for the first of many appearances that night. Having not performed in her hometown for three years, her appearance brought an instant, enthusiastic standing ovation. Offering a sweet soprano to Kreviazuk¹s "Surrounded," McLachlan - who has both given birth to her first child and lost her mother to cancer in the last two years - looked beautiful and sounded flawless. Kreviazuk and Jann Arden provided the first goose bump alert on the Armageddon-inspired cover "Leavin on a Jet Plane" while the audience showed their own vocal prowess.
McLachlan took the stage solo for the next number, a haunting piano-accompanied take on her hit "Possession." Long hair flowing over a jean jacket and white shirt, she looked both understated and radiant as she whispered "Listen as the wind blows"; it was an incredible moment, 19,000 people going completely silent, hanging on her every word. After the number, she explained "I don't have any one song that is particularly fitting, but this one comes close to talking about loss and living with grace." The thirty-four-year-old then led into a pin-drop perfect version of "Hold On" with its incredibly appropriate lyrics "Hold on to yourself, because this is gonna hurt like hell."
After ten short minutes, McLachlan left the stage and Arden began her half-hour set. Perhaps best described as Canada's Bette Midler, in both biting humor and musical melancholy, Arden is better-known at home than in the U.S. That said, her set - featuring McLachlan on Arden's "I Would Die For You" - was impressive, venturing from haunting to raucous courtesy of a disco ball-driven cover of "I Will Survive" that brought the audience immediately to their boogie-laden feet.
Following those three sets, the ladies with lungs took a break while the Barenaked boys stormed the stage. The band¹s performance was living proof of the benefits of cancer research; keyboard player Kevin Hearn fought a life-threatening battle with leukemia, one which saw him take temporary leave from the band in 1998. Launching into a stream of hits, including "One Week", "The Old Apartment" and "Pinch Me", the group blazed full-steam ahead for a solid hour, bringing laughter via their usual requisite schtick. There was a chicken dances, a booming Melissa Manchester cover ("Don't Cry Out Loud") and a genuinely gorgeous version of Wham's "Careless Whisper", with Kreviazuk guesting.
At the top of the third hour, McLachlan returned, this time for a forty-five-minute, full-band set. Kicking off with "Building A Mystery", "Adia" and "Elsewhere," she eventually granted the wish of fans hoping for a sneak preview of her upcoming record, with "Fallen." The song was not by any means a radical departure, but was certainly a joyful and beautiful tune. Following that brief glimpse forward, McLachlan returned to fan favorites, from "Ice Cream" to a beautifully sparse take on "Angel."
Cracking the fourth hour of the marathon event, Bryan Adams took to the stage for the first time that night, offering lots of r-a-w-k classics ("Here I Am", "Summer of '69") and power ballads. The first slow tune came in the form of a recently-recorded "Don't Let Go", a duet between Adams and McLachlan. From there, the sing-a-longs continued: "Cuts Like A Knife" with the Barenaked Ladies, "When You're Gone" with Arden, and an emotive version of an old classic, "Heaven" with Kreviazuk.
As is the case with most of these artists, the audience - primarily of the thirty and forty-somethings has literally watched the musicians grow from newcomers to, in some cases, superstars over the years. So the early material - especially Adams' - was well received. A man of few words, he simply ended his set by saying, "Thank you for coming - you've made a huge difference."
Winding up the night was an expected and anticipated musical love-in, the stage filled with people - headliners and backup bands - joining in for the crowd¹s biggest sing-along of the night, the Beatles' "With A Little Help From My Friends". Raising $1.5 million dollars in five hours, there was no denying the logic of that.
DENISE SHEPPARD
(October 11, 2002)