"Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery," a brand new documentary on Hulu/Disney+, is a nostalgic and important look at the late '90s all-female music festival founded by Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan.
Director Ally Pankiw wove together new interviews with archival footage from the Lilith Fair tours of 1997, 1998 and 1999.
Pankiw's film gave me chills multiple times watching footage I'd never seen before: Sinead O'Connor singing "Angel" with McLachlan, or Missy Elliot in an inflatable suit taking ownership of the crowd on what was her first concert tour.
McLachlan, and the artists that joined her on the tours, took a bold stand against the patriarchy, and the appallingly lopsided number of male artists being played on most radio stations compared to female artists. Lilith Fair was also a response to concert promoters unwilling to book a female artist to open for another woman. It also offered an alternative to male-dominated festivals like Lollapalooza.
Among the notable performers at Lilith Fair performers were Tracy Chapman, Indigo Girls, Sinead O'Connor, Sheryl Crow, Fiona Apple, Erykah Badu, Natalie Merchant, The Pretenders, Suzanne Vega, Missy Elliot, Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt and The Chicks.
The first Lilith Fair took place on July 5, 1997 at The Gorge amphitheater in George, Washington. Seated high on a hill in a crowd of more than 15,000 people that night was then-16-year-old Brandi Carlile. "Nothing could have prepared me for that experience, that sort of coming of age, that total freedom," Carlile says in the film.
All three years of the tour included stops at what was called Great Woods (now Xfinity Center) in Mansfield, Massachusetts.
I was there for all of them, and the Lilith Fair experiences are still among my most sacred live music memories.
Which brings us to Paula Cole, who was part of Lilith Fair's first two years, and who also played a key role in its origin.
In 1994, McLachlan and some of her band members saw Cole perform in a small club in Vancouver. They loved her so much that McLachlan invited Cole to open for her on her "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy" tour the following year.
On March 20, 1995, the tour came to Portland for a show at the State Theatre. I was front and center for a jaw-dropping performance from Cole, followed by McLachlan's stupendous set.
Cole recalled her time with McLachlan on that tour. "It was a match made in heaven, it was fantastic. She'd have me out there every night singing with her, and it was joyful."
Cole would always remind the crowd that a woman opening for another woman was unusual. "The audience would break out into applause because they knew it was true. It was a zeitgeist. You could feel the energy of it, you could feel that people wanted a change."
It was this tour that helped birth Lilith Fair. McLachlan knew women could open for other women, and the proof was in the ticket sales. All three years of the Lilith Fair tours were successful.
Cole attended the film premiere in Toronto on Sept. 13, her first time seeing McLachlan in many years. "I saw her on the red carpet, and it was immediate tears for me."
A perk of being on the tour was rubbing shoulders with other musicians, like Tracy Chapman, who Cole called a hero. Cole said she connected in particular with Mary Chapin Carpenter, Emmylou Harris and Liz Phair.
Cole called her Lilith Fair experience "peaceful."
"It felt hopeful. It felt badass and matriarchal," she said. "Those audiences were the best audiences I've ever performed to. It felt like a cultural movement, and we all knew it."
"Lilith Fair: Building A Mystery" also details the casual sexism the women faced, including what happened during and after the 1998 Grammy Awards broadcast. Cole, McLachlan and Shawn Colvin were all nominees, but instead of each getting to perform their own songs, as the male performers did, they were relegated to a medley.
In the film, McLachlan said the snub wasn't a hill the three women were prepared to die on. But what happened afterward was even worse. When Cole performed her abbreviated version of "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?" she raised her arm during the song.
It was a normal and natural gesture, but it resulted in a cruel backlash.
The documentary shows a series of TV clips of comics like Jay Leno mocking the fact that Cole didn't shave her armpits. Cole said she spent about a month ruminating on whether to approve its inclusion in the film.
"That part of the arc of the documentary gives the story gravitas and they needed it. They needed my pain to show some of the backlash because I was a real target," she said.
Cole said the memory still smarts. "It's painful to bring it up because there's still toxic bro culture out there. But I'm 57 now, and there are more important things about life than that."
"Lilith Fair: Building A Mystery" captures the essence of those festival years with many snippets of performances and backstage moments. It's a time capsule, and a way for music fans to recall a remarkable phenomenon.