w/ Ben Abraham
It’s been a long time coming for Sara Bareilles to return to Australia. After supporting Maroon 5 almost four years ago she had not returned to our southern shores until now. I am a huge Bareilles, and have been since her debut release, so for her to finally have a run of headline shows in Australia, was something I would not soon miss.
Opening the night was the super talented Ben Abraham. Sara introduced the musician herself and told the story of their fateful meeting over the Interwebs. His opening song was truly stunning. With lyrics like “Until you, I was a stingless guitar” it was just so heartfelt and really tender moment. His crown banter is just about second to none, as he riffed on his guitar while telling us stories about his songs or teaching us the harmonies to one of his songs about Home. A very polished artist who definitely is in need of further looking up!
The crowd at The Tivoli was a very vocal bunch and when Sara Bareilles took to the stage there was a ruckus that rivaled the welcoming of many an artist taking the stage. She opened her set with a solo version of “Let the Rain” on guitar. She backed this up with “Uncharted” solo on the Piano. What is so striking about Bareilles live, is her ability to portray her songs in a very different way to the way they are on record. She mixed up the melodies, and while maintaining the essence of the song takes you to a different place than that which you expected.
Her band joined her on stage for “Love on the Rocks” and I was surprised at the intimate setting that she was creating. With just two additional band members, one on synths, and the other on electronic drums, they created a very minimal yet rich sound. It was great to hear some of the artist’s older song, including cult favourite “Love Song”. However it was overshadowed by the next track “Hurclues”. Bareilles proclaimed this track as the centerpiece of her latest record The Blessed Unrest, as it signified all that was occurring in her personal life during the writing of the tracks for this album. Her rendition of it was heart-wrenchingly beautiful.
She then covered Sia’s smash hit “Chandelier” accompanied just on Ukelele. While the vocal melody stayed very much as strong as the original, it was insane to hear the power of Bareilles’ vocals in contrast to the tiny sound of the Uke. For her to successfully match Sia’s power in that song was incredible. Ben Abraham then joined her on stage for a couple of songs, “December”, “Chasing the Sun” and one of Ben’s songs. They were all proper duets, where each artist would sing a verse each and complement each other on the harmonies. It was great to hear two stunning voices working so well together.
One thing I have neglected to mention is just how hilarious Sara Bareilles is. I’d read that she is a crack up in her live show, but had little evidence until now. She is ridiculous, casually dropping the f-bomb on a semi-regular basis and paying out on people coming in late. Very funny stuff. She performed “I Choose You” before segueing directly into “Sweet As Whole”, other wise know as the “Asshole Song.” It was freaking hilarious!
She finished her set strongly with “King of Anything” and “Brave” back to back. What a great choice. They were both killer songs and really finished the set off exceedingly well. But! It was not all over just yet, for her Encore, she came back onto stage to perform a solo rendition of “Gravitiy”, one of my all time favourite songs. It was perfect. The whole set was perfect.
Sara Bareilles was everything I had hoped for live and then some. Such a great gig! However, with the tour being entitled “The Little Black Dress Tour”, it was distinctly lacking the title track in the set list… A small price to pay for other greatness I suppose. Lets just hope we will not have to wait another four years to see her back on our fair shores again.
