On February 6th, 2020, my sister and I went to see Sarah McLachlan at the Hobby Center in Houston Texas.
Whenever I started playing the piano in the late 90’s, I told myself that I wanted to play the piano like Sarah. During my lessons with my teacher, Janet Powell, we would regularly go over Sarah’s repertoire. I learned many themes, chord progressions, and melodies from her work. And often times, I’m reminded of her songs whenever these certain things occur in other musicians music.
Sarah’s performance was amazing. She is a superior musician and vocalist. She is true to her work in that she reenacts the music just as you expect to hear it. She performed this concert as an acoustic set, which is what I’m partial to. It was like we were sitting in a room together without the glitz of a band or a recording.
I tried to walk in with no expectations, but of all things, I wanted her to play the song “Wait”. Since the song was not released as a single, it was reasonable that she wouldn’t play it since so many other songs have come since then; however, she played “Wait”.
I was also introduced to a lot of her newer music, with a different perspective of the live event. The most notable thing was that when she play “Angel” it was like I was hearing it for the first time. It was like I was that kid in 1999 swinging in the front driveway, listening to what, at the time, was saddest and most moving song I’d ever heard—and so I wept not just for me, but for him as well because he was seeing his musical idol.
In preparation of the concert I went over a lot of her music. The lyrics to the song “Black” were painted on my ceiling along with posters of Sarah on the walls. I’d never played this song on the piano before, so I let myself to it. These words spoke to me so deeply as a teenager.
