SARA BAREILLES STUNS BOWERY BALLROOM WITH NEW MUSIC

When Sara Bareilles released the highly successful record The Blessed Unrest with its hit single “Brave,” little did she know that it would be six years before her next LP. Not that she’s had any downtime. She wrote the music for the hit Broadway show Waitress performed in that show as the lead, played Mary Magdalene alongside John Legend in Jesus Christ Superstar, and released a record of her music from Waitress. She also found time to move to New York, tour in 2015, fall in love, and deal with (along with the rest of us) the political unrest after the 2016 elections. Just a little bit busy.

Bowery Ballroom on March 22nd closed out her brief A Little Chaos Tour that hit San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. It’s been a tremendous success, selling out quickly, with tickets going for as much as $350 on secondary sites. Her New York show was packed with people traveling from all over the east coast, lining up starting in the early afternoon.

Sara Bareilles

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After doors opened at 7pm, the crowd waited restlessly until 9pm when Sara hit the stage. She got right to it with “Orpheus,” a track from her new record Amidst the Chaos. Besides five of her hit singles, the rest of the set covered almost all of her new record and we got to listen to it “first!”

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As with all her music, her new record is deeply personal. She explained how one song was about missing someone deeply but it’s not what you think. It was written about the Obamas! Sara also wrote a song with Emily king, who joined her on stage to sing it. Emotions were running high in the crowd as two people fainted during the performance! (they’re ok)

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Sara Bareilles

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After the set, Sara and her band left the stage briefly before Sara came back to sing her hit “Gravity” to her fans who were so quiet you could have heard a pin drop. She closed with “Saint Honesty,” which she said was her favorite track on the new album. Sara had worked with legendary producer, T Bone Burnett, on the new record. He taught her that the record doesn’t have to be perfect and she should just be true. So the band would do a bunch of takes of a song and just pick one of them to put on the record.

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After this brief tour in anticipation of the new album, we (and many of those who were not as lucky as we were to attend this show) are looking forward to a full 2019 tour in support the release of Amidst the Chaos on April 5th!