I was hanging out with one of my fellow feminazi friends recently and she filled me in about the last Sarah McLachlan show she went to. McLachlan was obnoxious as hell, hopping all over the stage like a kindergartner in dire need of Ritalin and some padded walls. Suffice it to say I wasn't sorry I missed this spectacle, although much fun would've been had at McLachlan's expense if I hadn't.

Jaws drop when people find out I've never attended Lilith Fair. In '97 I was holed up at my internship and last year's lineup, with exceptions like Liz Phair and Erykah Badu, sucked wad. Some of my favorite people in the universe have graced the Lilith stage, but one thing that continually bothers me is the number of brilliant performers the festival passes over. Lida Husik, one of the most grossly underrated artists in music today, is one such performer. The reason why she has yet to appear on the Lilith lineup is beyond me. (Tres batshit, no? God knows Paula Cole and Joan Osborne could use a permanent stand-in or three.)

Husik's last album, 1996's phenomenal Fly Stereophonic, was awash in jangly guitars and trippier- than- thou psychedelia, but on Faith, she's strictly electronic. "Build a Fire" is as appropo for a sweaty romp in a bump- and- grindaporium as it is for a summer evening spent on a rooftop admiring the cosmic show in the heavens and watching the ghetto birds wheel about (if you live in my neighborhood, that is.) Vocally, Husik is a study in a remarkable sort of restraint, never permitting her silvery alto to stray into the histrionics that befoul the aural nightmares of Mariah "I'd Be Hustling Blowjobs on 5th Street If I Hadn't Bagged The Sony Prez" Carey, among others. Aside from the occasional downer (the somewhat plodding "Waterfall"), all systems are go for this Space cadet.

-Susan Moll