Canadian queen of Celtic melodies returns to San Francisco for an austere and intimate performance
“Surreal” is probably the most appropriate word to describe how the evening felt this past Saturday night, when Loreena McKennitt returned to the Bay Area for the first time in nearly 10 years and treated a sold-out crowd at The Masonic to a gorgeous performance that stretched on for nearly three hours. There were no opening acts to speak of; there was only one encore (albeit with two songs), one intermission, and three musicians onstage for most of the concert. At the center of it all was a fantastic performer who, now in her 31st year of performing, sounds just as powerful and mystifying as she did on her albums from decades gone by, both in voice and in instrumentation. It was quite the sight to behold, made more intense by the unwavering concentration and respect of the audience; aside from when the musicians bowed at the end of the show, not a single conversation was to be heard, nor a phone held aloft to document the moment — an extreme rarity in today’s live music scene.
Continue reading “Show Review: An Evening with Loreena McKennitt at the Masonic, 3/19/2016”
