This was my favorite show of the year with regard to singer/songwriting inspiration. The stage had a grand piano with no seat, a cello, violin, an upright bass, electric basses, guitars, drums of course and a Nord Stage 2, a keyboard by M-Audio and a MicroKorg. That is a lot of extra accompaniment for a singer songwriter and that fascinates me. Bareilles kicked off the Little Black Dress Tour with the song “Little Black Dress” from behind the piano.
Although I did not previously know many of her songs, she performed every song in a way that made me feel like I did. The first song that I did know, her first popular song, was “Love Song” where she asked the audience to sing with “more attitude.” It started raining before they came on, but the sun actually came out right when she started singing “Chasing The Sun.” Sara humbly thanked everyone for coming and never imagined growing up and singing for people who would stand in the rain just to hear you sing. I got chills down my spine from it. She also ran off the stage into the rain for solidarity sake. “Come Around Soon” has the lyrics “Oh, it looks like rain tonight and thank God ‘Cause a clear sky just wouldn’t feel right“ and I literally thought she just made that up but it’s actually part of the song. She hits the high note in the song just like the recording and once again, I got chills. A full, connected on both ends, double rainbow formed after that song.
Bareilles asked the crowd if they wanted to hear a ballad in the rain and sang “Manhattan” accompanied by an upright bass. “Sweet As Whole” revealed that she does not have a filter, even with kids around, and is completely okay with it. According to the band, it was time for a dance party with a four (4) part harmony coming from Sara, the keyboardist, the singing violinist and the bassist as they performed the En Vogue cover “My Lovin'(You’re Never Gonna Get It.) The crowd finally got a chance to dance since the rain had halted.
During the bridge of “King of Anything,” she split the crowd into two teams and assigned each team a vocal harmony. It sounded awesome. Her most popular song at the moment, that is on practically every commercial, is “Brave” which she revealed to have written for a friend to be brave in whatever hardship was in place at the moment. The crowd was practically singing it for her! Her fans were so riled up at the end that there had to be encore songs! As I stated earlier, this show was the most inspiring for me as a singer/songwriter and musician because it shows the realism of being a solo artist!
Setlist:
Little Black Dress
I Wanna Be Like Me
Love On The Rocks
Love Song
I Choose You
Chasing The Sun
Hercules
Come Round Soon
Manhattan
Gravity
Sweet As Whole
Uncharted
My Lovin’ (You Never Gonna Get It) (En Vogue cover)
King Of Anything
Brave
Encore:
Bright Lights and Cityscapes
Satellite Call
Photos by Gus Griesinger. We would like to thank Maria Hays from Artpark for her assistance in helping BackstageAxxess review the show.
