Like many of us, Sara Bareilles dealt with grief and loss in the wake of the COVID pandemic in 2020.
Bareilles processed these feelings on her recently released album Good Grief, her first since 2019’s Amidst the Chaos, which formed the centerpiece of her highly energetic, engaging performance.
“It’s been a long time,” she said, teasing the audience at The Anthem Saturday night (the first of two evenings at the venue), “Mama’s been taking a rest,” then said, “I’ve been doing other things.”
After kicking off her set with the album’s lead track, “Home,” Sara gave the crowd an idea of what to expect for the show on Sept. 12. The album, she explained, is about “turning the concept of grief over and looking at it from all perspectives.” She’s been collecting people’s story of grief, loss, and coping over voicemail, and some of the evening’s most touching moments came when she shared them.
Sara introduced “Still Crying,” appropriately enough, as “one about crying.”
Watch the official music video for “Still Crying” by Sara Bareilles on YouTube:
“Just A Kid” was inspired by a conversation with her old friend Chad, and it came to her like a “bolt of lightning.” “A Love Story” sets the words of the late poet Andrea Gibson, who passed away from ovarian cancer last year, to music. Bareilles played “Hands Off My Body” straight into an older song, “Armor,” then “Heartland” into another older number, “Saint Honesty.”
She followed “Many The Miles” with “Capsize Me,” straight into “Many The Miles.” After doing a couple more new songs, “Nervous Breakdown” and “Idiot Heart,” she sang one of her most beloved tunes, “Gravity.” “Forever” was followed by a rollicking cover of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me).”
After singing her first big hit, “Love Song,” she rounded out the main set with “Uncharted” and “King of Anything,” finishing with the fan favorite “Brave.” For her encore, Sara and her band played “She Used to Be Mine,” “Salt Then Sour Then Sweet,” and “Let the Rain.”
Bareilles’s theatrical bent — she wrote the music for the Tony nominated Waitress and starred in 2018’s Emmy and Grammy-nominated Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert! — was clear during Saturday’s show, which was carefully arranged for maximum emotional impact. Her abundance of heart and good humor were on display, too.
For an evening with so many songs and stories dealing openly with grieving, it was a surprisingly joyful experience. Her fans adore her, for her good reason, and it’s she clear she feels the same way about them. I’ve wanted to see Sara play for a long time and it was worth the wait. Her songs are fantastic, and she was singing the hell of out of them. She’s a dynamic, one-of-a-kind performer, not to be missed.
