Melissa Etheridge: Like the Way She Does

It's hard to believe it's been 20 years since 1989's "Brave and Crazy" made Melissa Etheridge a rock star. Hard too it seems for Etheridge, who flubbed a line off that album's "Chrome Plated Heart" early in Monday's show at DPAC. Old songs and children's names, the twice-split mother of four told the forgiving faithful.

If you're wondering how breast cancer has affected Etheridge's trademark rasp, forget it. She growled. She wailed. She sang for two and a half hours. Her voice was as strong on the smoking closer "Like the Way I Do" ("Nobody aches, nobody aches just to hold you") as on earlier numbers from new album "Fearless Love." (Standout cut: "Indiana.")

Etheridge's called the female Springsteen. But it's critics' shorthand. The Boss mines his working class roots. Etheridge taps a more primal vein: her need for a physical connection. And though she's criticized by some lesbian fans for not using explicit, female pronouns, the need is universal.

Still, the cancer is a theme now. And it, too, connected Monday with fans who along with love and heartbreak have faced their own mortality. Five years after a bald-from-chemo Etheridge brought down the Grammy house with Janis Joplin's "Piece of My Heart," she sang her Susan J. Komen anthem "I Run for Life" ("I run for your mother, your sister, your wife.") What can seem generic on video became authentic. I cried.

You forget how many hits Etheridge has: ("I Want to Come Over," "Come to My Window" "I'm the Only One.") Until you see her, though, you can't fully appreciate the performer. On the Grammy nominated "Bring Me Some Water" and scorching "Like the Way I Do," she dropped to her knees, traded licks with lead guitarist Peter Thorn, and had fans dancing from the front row to the cheap seats (or what passes for cheap these days).

She returned for a single encore, a song off "Fearless Love" about mothers and daughters called "Gently We Row." A lullaby, it's about finding your way. ("Slow, slow, this river is slow / And you are never out here on your own / Row, row, gently we row / Oh"). It was a new, sweet Melissa, and another invitation to the journey.