HOLMDEL, N.J. — Lilith Fair founder Sarah McLachlan has said this summer's edition of the female-centric tour may be the last. If so, she's not content to let it just fade away.

While McLachlan's headlining set of romantic ballads drew thunderous applause at the Lilith show here Saturday — as the tour approaches its finale Aug. 31 — two hard-edged rock acts immediately before her electrified the crowd with scorching, screeching guitars.

Guitarist and singer/songwriter Chrissie Hynde, whose band, the Pretenders, was the first to really rattle the rafters at the P.N.C. Bank Arts Center here, has made a career out of rocking hard ever since she burst out of the late-'70s punk scene. More surprising was the adrenalized set by multi–Grammy Award winner Sheryl Crow, who is best-known for such catchy pop songs as "Leaving Las Vegas" and "All I Wanna Do" — neither of which she performed Saturday.

"Apart from the fact that we are a bunch of dumb girls, aren't [we] fantastic?" Hynde said, rallying the crowd for her Lilith sisters. Brightly clad in red and blue and looking a decade younger than her 47 years, Hynde led the Pretenders through some of their most hard-edged numbers, including "Night in My Veins" (RealAudio excerpt), "Middle of the Road" and "My City Was Gone," during which she did a funky chicken walk at the front of the stage.

Through most of the 45-minute set, Hynde wielded her electric guitar like a machine gun.

Crow, sporting short-cropped hair and wearing form-fitting white pants with a sleeveless white top that showed off her well-toned arms, followed the Pretenders and cut a far more aggressive figure than she has in the past.

During the raucous "Am I Getting Through," from The Globe Sessions (1998), Crow, who led a seven-piece band, projected her voice at full throttle. She thrust her hands in her hair and mussed it before ending the song, with her two fellow guitarists, in loud feedback.

"This next song is by my good friend Axl Rose," Crow announced, apparently facetiously, before ripping into her cover of Guns n' Roses' "Sweet Child o' Mine," which also appears on The Globe Sessions. Lilith master of ceremonies Sandra Bernhard, the actress/comedian, sang with Crow during the "Where do we go now?" section of the song and rubbed herself provocatively against Crow's side. Bernhard soldiered on singing when her mic went out a few times, cracking up Crow in the process.

Things got mellow when McLachlan sang a duet with Crow on the countryish "Strong Enough." But Crow closed full force, digging into her electric guitar furiously during a funky "There Goes the Neighborhood," after which she kicked over a few mic stands, leaving the stage with the amps ringing.

Moments later, McLachlan re-entered to start her set, and the transformation was immediate and startling. The Lilith queen, draped in a bright blue dress that flowed with the wind, began the atmospheric "Possession," which seemed to propel the mostly female crowd into a body-swaying sing-along.

The keyboard-heavy vibe continued with "Black & White" and "Adia" (RealAudio excerpt), both from McLachlan's 1997 album, Surfacing. Following the guitar assaults of the two previous acts, McLachlan's performance relied on her emotional voice, which rang out from the stage amid blue and green lights.

"What a beautiful sound you people [make]," a beaming McLachlan told the adoring crowd as she drank in the applause. "I love my job. It's amazing what I get to do."

"Sarah's special because of her mixture of touching, slow music and rock," Michele Kostick, 23, of Kearney, N.J., said. "She does a good job of mixing up the [Lilith] acts, though [R&B singer] Mya didn't really fit in with the rest of the music."

After a haunting encore of her hit ballad "Angel" (RealAudio excerpt), McLachlan brought many of the other Lilith performers, including Crow, Bernhard, Melky Jean of Melky Sedeck, and ex–Veruca Salt leader Nina Gordon onstage to join in on Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released."

Jean — Wyclef Jean's younger sister — was caught up in the song's fever and let loose some operatic wailing. McLachlan hugged Jean and picked up Crow and carried her off as the artists exited the stage to close the Lilith evening.

The tour, which began a month ago, continues through Aug. 31. Most of the remaining dates are in the Midwest and Canada.