November 2, 1997
Early birthday party for Lang

It's actually K.D. Lang's birthday today, but the party got under way early last night at the Hummingbird Centre where an appreciative, often rowdy crowd sang Happy Birthday to one of Canada's most talented and cherished singers.

The catalyst was a plastic, blow-up birthday cake placed on the Hummingbird stage by two Union Jack flag-waving British fans -- "Yeah, it looks like English food," Lang joked, before adding, "I'm going to bathe with it."

It seemed the Lang lovefest was going to get sappy -- there were also numerous bouquets of flowers -- until one female fan shouted out what many in the wolf-whistling audience must have been thinking: "You get a big kiss if you come over here."

Lang, in a playful, sexy and talkative mood up until then, only smiled but later offered her cheek to another female fan in the front row who said she was wearing Viva Glam, the lipstick sold by cosmetic giant MAC for whom Lang is a spokesperson.

Interestingly, the Consort, Alberta, native was anything but glamorous last night in a mannish, grey, pinstripe suit with hardly a trace of makeup on.

The lack of warpaint, however, hardly hampered Lang's thrilling delivery of the cabaret-oriented material from her latest smoke-themed album, Drag, which dominated the 90-minute show.

Backed by five musicians and two female backup singers, Lang began the evening with four new songs -- Don't Smoke In Bed, Smoke Dreams, The Joker and My Old Addiction, before delving into older material like Save Me, Wash Me Clean and Constant Craving from her breakthrough album, Ingenue, which she referred to as "Lingerie."

But the standout section came when Lang paid tribute to Roy Orbison with a trilogy of songs, beginning with Till The Heart Caves In from Drag, followed by Cryin' -- the first song to bring people to their feet -- and capped off by the Chris Isaak song, Western Stars.

The other obvious crowd favorite was Miss Chatelaine, which was revved up by a bubble machine, disco lights and Lang leaping across the stage and posing like a model while the audience clapped along.

Another neat moment came when Lang sang a portion of Fever, accompanied only by her bass player and drummer.

Otherwise, Lang was as chatty and hammy as ever.

She told the audience "the worst gig" of her life was an Easter date in Kenora, playing at a men's baseball team fundraiser where no one knew who she was and she finally resorted to "the crucifix position" for two songs and only ended up selling one record.

She later staggered around the stage, pretending to be out of breath while she sang Smoke Rings, and claimed to have forgotten the words to Hanky Panky and changed them to "Spank me, Spank me."

"I'm just as happy as a clam to be back in Canucksville," Lang said.

It showed.

JAM! Rating: 4 out of 5