Love, loss, laughter, and Sara Bareilles!
Excited chatter, the clinking of VIP lanyards, and many a hat filled the lobby at Bass Concert Hall in Austin, TX, last night for Sara Bareilles’ Good Grief show. If you owned a wide-brim hat, an iPod Touch, or watched VH1’s Top 20 countdown while getting ready in the mornings, you know exactly who Sara Bareilles is. A native of Eureka, CA, Sara became a Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, creating massive hits such as “Love Song,” “Brave,” “Gravity,” and “King of Anything”. Later on, she created the music and lyrics for Waitress, a painfully beautiful musical featuring a TikTok and my personal favorite, “When He Sees Me,” and the crowd favorite, “She Used To Be Mine.” “Good Grief,” Sara’s newest work released in late August of this year, followed by a documentary, discusses her journey through personal, heartbreaking loss.
Sara tells the story to the audience by performing the songs and also playing voice memos recorded by people sharing their own very real tales of grief. One example is from Jim, an 80-year-old widower, who spills his heart about living a new life without his beloved wife, who passed away a year before he recorded the message. He tells Sara how difficult it has been to live day by day without his late wife and how Good Grief has helped him.
SARA BAREILLES
GOOD GRIEF TOUR
Sara rotates between playing the piano, standing, playing the guitar, and singing with her band members. A beautiful collection of musicians joined together to narrate a feeling that is almost impossible to describe, yet they did it so well last night. Starting with “Home” from the new album and ending with “Brave” before the 3 song encore, the audience was absolutely entranced. They experienced feelings of sympathy and painful reminders of loss paired with hilarious moments of laughter when Sara turned the show from a concert into a stand-up routine.
A few memorable moments included a crowd member yelling out that they had seen Sara on the street the day before and Sara responded with “I Remember You,” followed by some great banter about drinking on the sidewalk. Another moment occurred when a couple announced they were getting married soon, sharing their excitement.
