Sarah McLachlan brought her ‘Better Broken’ tour to Artpark this past Tuesday night. This is the 4th time that McLachlan played the historic Artpark Theater over the years, and 2nd time in the last 3 years. ‘Better Broken’ is the 10th studio release from McLachlan. It was her 1st album of new material in 11 years. The Canadian superstar brought another Canadian artist in Allison Russell to open the show.
Russell opened the show and did a strong 40-minute set. Just 4 days earlier, she released her newest album in ‘In the Hour of Chaos.’ Russell’s 7 song set included a few new tracks, “Chaos Theory” and “Black Lavender.” Russell showed her musical diversity by singing acapella and playing both the banjo and clarinet. She delivered her brand of Americana to the Lewiston crowd, and I think it went over very well.
McLachlan took the stage at about 8:35pm with her 5-piece backing band. McLachlan has built a career with her intimate lyrics, her amazing voice and beautiful melodies. McLachlan made sure that the stage gave a warm and charming feeling with candles being placed on her piano. After the opening track of “Better Broken,” she stated about it being very humid and reassured the crowd that “we are all in this together and we will get through it together.” That was just a small taste of McLachlan’s sensibility throughout the show. If you’ve ever seen McLachlan live, she gets very personal with her audience. She usually gives a storyteller’s typo of vibe throughout her show. It’s a great play that gives the audience a real deep dive into how the songs came about. McLachlan’s voice is just flawless. She has lost nothing and still can showcase her power, as she did on various notes on “Possession.” People in the crowd were responsive throughout by saying how amazing she sounded in between songs. McLachlan talked about her new recent found relationship and how the song “Reminds Me” came out of that. She told the story that she just started recently to build up the courage to talk about how “Adia” was formed. She fell in love with her best friend’s boyfriend. She said she was” young and dumb at the time.” A few years later, her and her friend made up and now their bond is strong as ever. “I Will Remember You” sounded flawless. Her entire band came to the front of the stage to sing harmonies on “Only Human.” McLachlan talked about human rights and especially women’s rights. They showed an accompanying video as they did “One in a Long Line.” Thing were lightened a bit when the fun “Ice Cream” was played. She came out to do a few encores including the emotional “Angel.” She closed the set with a powerful rendition of “Fear.”
I must say the overall sound was pristine. After being on the road for over 30 plus years, McLachlan has lost nothing vocally or performance wise. As the summer starts heating up at Artpark, the near capacity crowd were treated to an amazing performance by McLachlan and her band. The bar was set high, and the rest of the 2026 lineup has lot to live up to.
*A very important note to share is that every ticket sold for McLachlan’s shows goes to her charity “School of Music.” She referenced this during the show and talked about how important it is keeping music in the schools. For more information on the School of Music, please click here: School of Music.
Setlist:
Better Broken
Vox
The Path of Thorns
Possession
Reminds Me
Fallen
Adia
Full of Grace
I Will Remember You
Only Human
Building a Mystery
World on Fire
One in a Long Line
Sweet Surrender
The Last to Go
Elsewhere
Ice Cream
If This is the End
Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
Encore:
Gravity
Angel
Fear
We would like to thank Alexa Johnson from Livenation for the credentials to review then show.