Love Bareilles' "Love Song"

Posted at 02:09, 2007-Oct-2 in Fresh Faces

After speeding all the way to Ann Arbor, MI this past Saturday (September 29^th, 2007) I arrived at the second level of Borders only to see that all the seats were already taken. I cursed my inability to wake up early. All these people sitting in front of a small stage were waiting to see the amazing Sara Bareilles perform and I didn’t have a seat.

Although I live in Holland, the moment I found out that this incredible singer-songwriter was going to be doing a performance (for free) AND doing a sign and greet, I was more than willing to pay the gas money. For many artists who do this type of tour with Borders, the people who show up for these performances range from dedicated fans, who will probably see the artist again the same night at a real venue to people who just happen to find out that “some singer” is going to perform and decide to spend a few minutes to see how it all goes down.

I had found a spot on the floor in front only to be joined by five other 12 year old girls (with better taste in music than I had when I was that age) who claimed to be “so excited!” and I have to admit that I was a complete teeny bopper especially when I replied back with a “me too!” After announcements such as Sara opening for Maroon 5’s US tour this fall – starting the same night at The Palace in Auburn Hills, that her performance was going to be broadcast on Ann Arbor’s 107.1 FM station, and showing us where we could purchase her first major label album, Little Voice, we all got a glimpse of Sara behind the stage.

She seemed more petite than I had imagined her to be from all her publicity photos. Her hair was in a simple pony tail. She was wearing an adorable but casual outfit which consisted of a t-shirt length light pink dress over a white tank top complete with gold earrings and necklace. She looked like any other nice girl in her early twenties. As she walked onto the stage with two supporting band members, she gave a polite wave to her audience. She answered the emcee’s interview questions with a professional but down to earth attitude and commented on how we were such a “clap-happy audience” but that it was okay because it was “the best kind to be.”

She started out her live set with the hit single, “Love Song” which most audience members discovered on itunes when it was the free single of the week. The chords keep the song in drive and the lyrics create exactly what a pop song should sound like today. As her catchy pop voice permeated the air, her fingers seemed to be as happy to be playing the full length keyboard as her face seemed when she cheerfully looked out into the audience with what looked like appreciation.  She couldn't have been any further from being a sour-faced or dilluded crap pop star like Avril.

The second song she chose to share with us was an even more blues-upped version of “Many the Miles.” Sara also made sure to enlighten us with the fact that it was about “a positive outlook on life... a pro-life song.” Her pop voice was still honest and innocent but it now had an edge that could definitely pull in the soul genre audience as well. Sara must have excelled in her communications studies at UCLA (even though she chooses not to use the degree) and remembered that audience participation always makes a performance more memorable. She broke it down towards the end of the song where she used her a cappella voice and just her snapping fingers. Pretty soon, the entire room was snapping along to her Fiona Apple/Norah Jones-on-uppers sound and for the first time, I noticed audience members swaying to and fro as they sang along to her lyrics.

Sara closed her short but worthy set with the touching song, “Gravity.” As her band members left her alone on stage and just before she played those two intimate chords in the introduction she informed us “You can thank my ex-boyfriend for this.” As she sang, “You’re neither friend nor foe/Though I can’t seem to let you go/One thing I know is that you’re keeping me down,” and making “down” the most shockingly and powerful you note you ever heard, the audience couldn’t have been disappointed even if she was just “some singer” at the beginning of the day.

Thank god for musicians like Sara Bareilles to ensure Avril is a dying breed.

- sl

Official Sara Bareilles Website

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