Did I go into the Sarah McLachlan and Friends show on Thursday night at Massey Hall wishing I was across town at Roy Thomson Hall for an evening of traditional Irish music with The Chieftians, the legendary Dublin band?

Yes, I did.

It was St. Patrick’s Day for crying out loud and my father’s people are from Belfast.

Still, McLachlan, who shared the stage all night long with Aussie pop-rock singer-bassist Butterfly Boucher and Chicago-born, Toronto-based singer-guitarist Melissa McClelland, her Canadian guitarist-husband Luke Doucet, and surprise guests Greg Keelor of Blue Rodeo and cellist Kevin Fox, eventually won me over.

Call it mini-Lilith or Lilith Lite.

Having finally called an end to her all-female music festival after a commercially disappointing 2010, the soaring-voiced McLachlan is now back on the road playing smaller theatres and showing off the abilities of her talented friends and the format suits her.

During the first of two shows at Massey, McLachlan also let everyone know that not only would she be sharing the spotlight but taking questions from audience members whose written queries were left in a top hat from which she pulled pieces of paper and the occasional prop like a green bracelet (and glow in the dark green ball) which she was asked to wear, and dutifully did, in honor of St. Paddy’s Day.

“I don’t think I have any green on,” she admitted earlier in the show. “I forgot about that. Oh s--t. I was going to say I’m green on the inside, but not really.”

She answered almost all of the questions - yes, she’s kissed a girl more than once and liked it - and if she could go out with a male or female actor she’d choose Viggo Mortensen and Jodie Foster or Cate Blanchett, respectively.

Songwise, there was the usual McLachlan crowd pleasers like Building A Mystery, I Will Remember You, and Ice Cream, but it was McClelland’s own searing slice of Americana, Passenger 24, that very nearly stole the show as she got the crowd clapping along for the first time in the evening.

Also good were either reworked or stripped down older McLachlan tunes like Stupid, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, Fallen, Forgiveness, Aida, Hold On, Sweet Surrender and Possession with beautiful harmonies provided by McClelland and Boucher, and Fox’s cello adding a bittersweet touch to Angel during the encore.

While adept at bass, Boucher’s first couple of tunes, To Feel Love and Another White Dash, were underwhelming but she rebounded nicely in the second set after an intermission with the moodier I Can’t Make Me and A Bitter Song.

And it was cute to see McLelland and Doucet tackle one of his songs, Broken One, together given the tune is about an ex-girlfriend which he said they had been singing together for eight years now.

“That bitch just won’t go away,” McLelland joked.

Doucet was also good on his own with Emily, Please.

And when Keelor popped out during the encore to sing Blue Rodeo’s Dark Angel, it felt like the ultimate icing on the cake.

SET LIST:

Awakenings

Building a Mystery

Loving You is Easy

Stupid

To Feel Love (Butterfly Boucher)

Another White Dash (Butterfly Boucher)

Passenger 24 (Melissa McClelland)

Brake (Melissa McClelland)

Answer

I Will Remember You

Don’t Give Up on Us

Fumbling Towards Ecstasy

Fallen

World on Fire

INTERMISSION:

Segovia (Melissa McClelland)

Broken One (Melissa McClelland and Luke Doucet)

Emily, Please (Luke Doucet)

I Can’t Make Me (Butterfly Boucher)

A Bitter Song (Butterfly Boucher)

Good Enough

The Path of Thorns (Terms)

Forgiveness

Adia

Hold On

Illusions of Bliss

Sweet Surrender

Possession

Encore:

Dark Angel (Greg Keelor)

Angel (featuring cellist Kevin Fox)

Ice Cream